Earthquake!

If you haven't already heard, yesterday the East Coast had an earthquake. It was a 5.8 on the ritcher scale and was felt from the Carolinas to New York and as far west as Tennesse and Ohio. The epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia Northwest of Richmond and Southwest of DC. It was about 100 miles South of where we were.

I was in my car at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Viers Mill Road on my way to work. I felt my car shake and at first thought perhaps my engine was about to die. This upset me because my car is brand new and if the engine is dying then some one was going to pay. But then I looked up and the stoplight bar shaking. I had my windows down because it was a gorgeous day and I heard the rumbling. There was a church on the left and I looked over to see the windows rattle. That was when I knew there was an earthquake. The shaking stopped and the light changed. I drove into the parking lot and saw everyone milling around on the sidewalk. As I was walking towards the building, I got a text from Jon that said "Earthquake?" Since he was sending me a text, I knew he was okay. I replied yes. My company has a rendezvous piont in case of emergency so I helped to round up employees to the rendezvous point. Jon texted me with a 5.8 so I knew what the magnitude was. After they confirmed that the building was stable, we were allowed back in. We suffered some slight damage with some broken dishes and accessories, but otherwise we continued like a normal day.

When Jon got home he found one of the wedding pictures had fallen and the glass was broken. Alice was fine although I sure the picture falling freaked her out more than the shaking.

Jon told me that he was in his lad and he felt the shaking start. The lights were swaying and he thought perhaps they might be doing some work nearby. The shaking intensified so he moved to the doorway. He said he saw people running in the hall to the stairs and outside. Jon stayed in the doorway until the shaking stopped (about 45 seconds) and then calmly walked to the exit. He told me that people were running past him. They stayed outside for a bit and then they came back in.

So that's our story. We survived.

Update: Early in the morning of 8/25/11 at approximately 1:08 am, We experienced an aftershock of 4.5. I felt it as I was laying on the couch watching TV. Nothing really happened. I just felt a bit of shaking. As soon as it happened I got online and kept checking to see if it was another earthquake. Within 5 minutes, I was confirmed.