Earthquake!

[sr71plt]

Anyone else feel the earthquake ten minutes ago (1:55 Eastern Time)? 5.8, with the epicenter between Charlottesville and Richmond, VA. The news is saying it was felt from Washington, D.C., down to North Carolina. It certainly was felt here in Charlottesville. Lasted for a good thirty seconds.

I've been through worse in Japan and Thailand, but this one was a surprise.

 

[Phydeaou]

.....

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Anyone else feel the earthquake ten minutes ago (1:55 Eastern Time)? 5.8, with the epicenter between Charlottesville and Richmond, VA. The news is saying it was felt from Washington, D.C., down to North Carolina. It certainly was felt here in Charlottesville. Lasted for a good thirty seconds.

I've been through worse in Japan and Thailand, but this one was a surprise.

Yes, I did.

Did I just feel an earthquake, in New Jersey?

 

[jdnunyer]

As far north as Toronto, if my FB feed is to be believed.

 

[talismania]

Oh yeah. The house shook and I got my lovely ass (and my poodle) out the door. It wasn't much of a quake but all the neighbors were outside, too, and we had a nice get together.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I was taking a nap, so I was a bit slow on the uptake. At first I thought they were using explosives on the construction site across the street (they use them all the time to dig foundations in rock). It wasn't until I was standing up that I realized the ground was still shaking, and by the time I got to the door, it was all over. Not very safe of me, but I'm on the second floor. I'm doomed either way

 

[sr71plt]

Three and a half miles below the surface, near Mineral, Virginia, (a nuclear reactor is nearby there), and the magnitude has been changed to 5.9.

Our phones are out, including cell, but everything else is working (including, now, me again).

 

[PennLady]

They felt it in Philly. My husband thought he felt something (we're about 25 miles from Philly) but I didn't, myself. However, they have evacuated buildings in Philly as a precaution since many are old and and none are built with earthquakes in mind.

We have internet and cable, but our landline phones (also via Comcast in a bundle) are not working. I couldn't get through to my mom in NJ, I'm assuming it's related as she uses Comcast too. Cells are working.

 

[DG Hear]

Three and a half miles below the surface, near Mineral, Virginia, (a nuclear reactor is nearby there), and the magnitude has been changed to 5.9.

Our phones are out, including cell, but everything else is working (including, now, me again).

We felt in in Eastern Ohio. Just kind of a shimmy. Was at around 1:45 est

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Yup. We felt it here in North Carolina.

 

[sr71plt]

We have internet and cable, but our landline phones (also via Comcast in a bundle) are not working. I couldn't get through to my mom in NJ, I'm assuming it's related as she uses Comcast too. Cells are working.

Our Comcast phones not working in Virginia--but Comcast Internet and TV cable are. Cell phones not working either. Luckily, we have e-mail, because we're getting messages from everywhere--from as far away as Australia.

I'm waiting for someone to notice that there's a nuclear reactor sitting on top of the epicenter.

 

[Macdaddy23]

I felt it. I didn't know what it was at first.
It made me laugh when people think it's the end of the world just because of an earthquake.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I'm waiting for someone to notice that there's a nuclear reactor sitting on top of the epicenter.

That was one of the first things I saw when I googled the initial quake. They said power went down initially. I haven't looked for a followup yet though...

 

[PennLady]

Our Comcast phones not working in Virginia--but Comcast Internet and TV cable are. Cell phones not working either. Luckily, we have e-mail, because we're getting messages from everywhere--from as far away as Australia.

I'm waiting for someone to notice that there's a nuclear reactor sitting on top of the epicenter.

We're the same -- internet and email and TV working (we're watching local coverage now) but no phones. Cells are working but no one to call. My mom must be at the pool, she's not picking up her cell.

I'm sure they'll get to the reactor soon. Right now, where I am, it's all about how we don't usually get earthquakes, etc., etc.

 

[sr71plt]

That was one of the first things I saw when I googled the initial quake. They said power went down initially. I haven't looked for a followup yet though...

We never lost power in Charlottesville. Didn't even flicker. And, interestingly, the trees didn't move at all, even though the earth was shimmying. It will take us hours to straighten all the pictures on the walls.

I've had objects fly off shelves and buildings collapse in Tokyo and Bangkok with these things, though. The biggest quakes were in Tokyo, but the scariest was in Bangkok. I was on the fifteenth story of a building that swayed even when a truck passed on the street below because the building wasn't built on bedrock. Had bookcases and desks turn over in a quake there.

The last earthquake (sometime in the early 70s) I felt in Virginia collapsed both a high school (Lee High School) and a big box store (Best's) a mile from me in Northern Virginia (Washington, D.C., suburbs). Like you, I was napping, and hadn't even headed for the stairs before it stopped.

 

[PennLady]

We never lost power in Charlottesville. Didn't even flicker.

We didn't either, which was nice, b/c this weekend we lost it for about an hour and a half with the t-storms. Glad you didn't lose power.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

We never lost power in Charlottesville. Didn't even flicker.

No, not power to the area. Power within the plant itself. But I haven't been able to find the original article or a followup, so I call it BS and will leave it at that.

 

[estragon]

Felt a tremor around 1:55. Building vibrated, setting the couch I was on trembling for perhaps fifteen or twenty seconds. We're on the sixth floor in a pre-WWI building in Manhattan, so no point in running out unless serious shaking. Called out to Herself in her office (a converted bedroom), who said she felt it as well. We'd not lost Internet or power, so I started for the office in Lower Manhattan. On the way, Herself called me with the take on the quake--Northern VA, at first R6.9. I now understand from Yahoo! that it was downgraded to R5.8. Only my second earthquake, first was Nurnberg in 1976 (quake in Udine, N Italy but was felt in Germany).

Glad everyone seems to be safe so far.

 

[3113]

Three and a half miles below the surface, near Mineral, Virginia, (a nuclear reactor is nearby there), and the magnitude has been changed to 5.9.

Wow. Kudos. a 5.9 is pretty respectable! I suspect a few brick chimneys will have fallen down. That was the one thing I tended to think when traveling around that side of the nation...the brick is very pretty but one doesn't want to be in a brick building during an earthquake.

I'm waiting for someone to notice that there's a nuclear reactor sitting on top of the epicenter.

Well. That's awkward.

Glad to hear everyone is okay so far. Please keep checking in AHer's from that part of the U.S.

 

[sr71plt]

Reports from the epicenter indicate quite a bit of damage from fallen objects inside houses and a few carports collapsed on cars, but no buckled roads or anything of that nature. No injuries reported so far. There were no tall buildings within miles, but it's an old plantation area, so some very old buildings might have some foundation problems.

Those at the epicenter are also reporting continued aftershocks at fifteen-minute intervals.

Our phones are back now.

In addition to the askew art work on the walls, we did find some objects on the floor from a table in one corner of the living room--brass opium weights. No opium lost in the process, though.

 

[mynameisben]

Only an East-coaster would bother put down her teacup to squawk of a mere 5.9 earthquake felt at a distance.

 

[3113]

Only an East-coaster would bother put down her teacup to squawk of a mere 5.9 earthquake felt at a distance.

Now don't be mean! We put down our lattes to squawk when the weather drops below 50 degrees.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

5.9 is about what it takes to shake (not stir!) a Martini.

 

[3113]

The latest!

From here:

A nuclear power plant in central Virginia has lost offsite power in the wake of a 5.8 earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., U.S. nuclear officials said. The North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors, is now using four diesel generators to maintain cooling operations. The plant automatically shut down in the wake of the earthquake.

"As far as we know, everything is safe," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre.

Looks like Virginia is not going to be radioactive. And it also looks like the quake's been upgraded from 5.6 to 5.8.

 

[sr71plt]

Only an East-coaster would bother put down her teacup to squawk of a mere 5.9 earthquake felt at a distance.

A distance of 35-miles. I wasn't holding a teacup, but I've been through enough earthquakes to know not to put the teacup down on anything during the shaking.