VIRGINIA EARTHQUAKE

[ZigZag911]

NBC news is reporting a "moderate earthquake" a short time ago centered between Richmond and Charlottesville, VA, about 90 miles from Washington.

USGS reports 5.9 strength. Tremors and aftershocks were felt as far as NYC and Chapel Hill, NC.

I can personally report feeling shaking for about 15-20 seconds around 2 PM...my office is about 10 miles from Manhattan in northern NJ.

[Mark_Wheeler]

A 5.9 for us out in CA would get our attention, for you guys, thats REALLY unusual. Any damage reports yet?

[a2capt]

http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation

[kmbarnes1]

Shook my house/home office in Charleston, SC for about 15 seconds. Barely noticed it except for my computer monitor and my glass of water shaking. Crazy!

[sab163]

the ground shook up here in Massachusetts as well

[Persona non grata]

Same in up state NY

[Woodsy]

I've spoken with contacts in the pentagon and the capital building and both report lots of confusion, cell phones out (though texting works) but no injuries or significant damage. 

[JC004]

That earthquake was fun here.

[a2capt]

Now you see what it's like in California
A jail in SE Ohio apparently had sewer pipes break.. so they have to hold it for a while.

[ProdigalJim]

My office is in downtown DC...about three blocks from the White House. Our building shook...A LOT...and we lost a few things from the walls. I'm the safety warden for my floor (go figger  ) so I organized getting our folks off the floor and down the stairwells. nobody panicked, nobody got hurt. The streets were packed with calm, non-panicking people. Super-impressive!

No real damage reports, although Union Station, which I use for my commuter train home, was closed briefly for something related to the ceiling. My train, however, is getting in about two hours later than it ought to.

Guess it's good practice for the hurricane this weekend, huh?

[bosshawk]

I happened to walk past the TV and they were describing how a brick building in Vienna, Va lost a bunch of bricks and the tower at the Washington Cathedral had three of its four spires fall.  Unfortunately, they don't build buildings in that part of the world to withstand earthquakes, so problems arise.  I worked in Vienna for awhile and I have gone to the Cathedral since I was 5 yrs old.

Anyone relying on cell phones in an emergency is plain crazy.  The systems get overloaded with calls immediately and, in some cases, the towers go down in the shaking.  Think about that!!!!!!  In emergencies, land lines are far more reliable.

[Huey Driver]

Down here in Southern NJ, we got it for a good minute and a half, and it took about one minute to get to us from the epicenter. I was in the car eating a quick lunch and it started shaking. AT that very moment, an AH-1 Cobra flew directly over me at like 200 ft so I thought it was him...but then it kept shaking for another minute. I was a little freaked at first. 

Oh yeah, and the phone lines (and waves) were so tied up, there was practically no reaching anybody. But what do you expect?

[Майор Хаткевич]

Couple of years ago, we had quake here in the Midwest. It was pretty early in the AM, I was living in the parents basement, and getting ready for either a cadet activity or a SAREx. I was on the bed, checking something on the computer until the bed started shaking. I swear I thought someone was under the bed, so I grabbed my GT knife. It shook for about 30 seconds. Took me about that long after to get off the bed with the knife and flashlight to check under the bed. Couple hours later I found out it was an earthquake. Go figure.

[JC004]

Are you sure about a minute and a half?  That seems really long.

[SarDragon]

Way too long. Loma Prieta (SF, '89) only shook for about 35 seconds, but it seem to be much longer.

[Huey Driver]

I could of sworn it was a minute- minute and a half... unless time was going by really slowly.

[SarDragon]

It was. It seems like forever, even though it's only a few seconds.

[Spaceman3750]

It was. It seems like forever, even though it's only a few seconds.

If the solid ground that I've come to trust after a lifetime of standing on it suddenly betrayed me and started shaking time would probably slow WAY down for me too.