Eartthquake in Virginia

[seeker630]

Just saw that a 5.8 earthquake occurred at 1:51 about 60 miles from Richmond but felt from Charlotte NC to New York. Hope Leigh and everyone else on the East Coast is ok. It was felt by many in NC but I myself did not.

[N13]

I asked my employees if they had just felt an earthquake and they thought I was crazy. I guess being a refugee from California, I am more in tune with what it feels like. In NYC I felt three very very slight tremors. No big thing here.

 

N13

[Poolboy21409]

I am in Annapolis, MD about 120 miles from Richmond and every picture in my house is crooked, the chandeliers were swaying, the wind chimes on the deck were clanging with no wind, and water sloshed out of the swimming pool. The dogs - all three of them were freaked out - and was much worse than anything I was in while stationed in the Philippines where they occur almost weekly. Here it was short but very sharp. Quick to start and stop. Local phone service screwed up and I was about to start a phone interview for a job. ARGH. LBT needs to report as he is very near ground zero there.

 

PB

[+ purplekow]

Watching TV here in NJ and felt the couch move a few times and I thought one of the dogs was wagging his butt into the cough when all three of them walked in. Second East Coast Earthquake I have felt. This is was minor compared to the one when the epicenter was 15 miles from my home. Well they needed something to shake up Washington DC too bad all the politicians are out of town.

[jjkrkwood]

OK, so who was Having sex and felt the Earth move ? Inquiring minds wanna know.

[Lankypeters]

Brought last Saturday night back to mind here in Gotham.

[leigh.bess.toad]

i give up!!!!!!!

 

Okay, this has gone on long enough. In 2003, Hurricane Isabel hit Central Virginia (and other places too). I work for the utility company and was working in the system operations center that night so I didn't experience it until I walked out and saw the damage.

 

Less than 3 months later, we had our last noticeable earthquake. Unless of course you were driving your car at the time in which case you didn't feel it. Guess what I was doing? Yup, driving so I didn't feel it.

 

Today, I took off early to get some things done around the house. One of those things was mowing. Guess what? You can't feel a 5.8 earthquake when you are mowing either!!!

 

So I am certain that I am the only person who lives in Central Virginia who was in town for all three events and didn't experience one of them.

 

And I will no doubt I will be in the operations center this weekend and in all likelihood will miss Irene too.

 

But I have a question and a troubling concern.

 

IS THERE SOME SORT OF CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN EARTHQUAKES IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA AND MAJOR HURRICANES? Or is it only Hurricanes that start with the Letter I?

 

But the concern is this: the last earthquake in 2003 was a 4.5. Today's was a 5.8, over 10 times more powerful. If Irene is proportionally larger to Isabel as this earthquake was to 2003, we are in BIG trouble. Isabel knocked out power for almost a month for some people. The entire electric grid almost had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

 

FWIW, I have spoken to my office. No damage was reported. Which is good. The earthquake was centered in Mineral, Virginia. I'm glad no damage was done there because we do have the North Anna Nuclear Power Station. In Mineral. Both units shut down immediately with no damage.

 

Mineral, VA is about 40-50 miles from my house. No damage was done here, nothing shook off the shelves or walls. But my son did try to dive into the dog's kennel.

 

So I guess the moral of the story is: If you want to be safe during a natural disaster, stick with me. You won't feel a thing.

[+ deej]

It has been upgraded to either 5.9 or 6.0 depending on which report you read.

 

FORTUNATELY, the effects in DC and NYC were more like a 3.0 and 2.0, respectively. 6.0 can cause considerable damage in a direct hit. 2.0/3.0 is more of a curiosity.

 

The epicenter is very near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the U.Va. grounds (not campus), so I won't be surprised to hear of some structural damage there.

 

News reports say it was felt as far away as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

 

This all comes when the area thought their worst worry was hurricane preparedness. Mother nature has a way of saying "I'll get you one way or another!"

[leigh.bess.toad]

Actually how I found out about the quake? I got a text from Ace making sure I was okay. He asked about an earthquake. I know they had a quake yesterday in Colorado. I couldn't figure out why he thought I would have been in any danger from an earthquake in Colorado.

 

Thanks for caring Ace. That says a lot about you.

[+ ArVaGuy]

I was just driving back from Sperryville, VA (70 miles from DC) and felt absolutely nothing when this hit. Traffic on I-66 and near Tysons Cornner (a major shopping mall) was congested as normal on an average weekday. That means bumper to bumper with the usual level of aggressive driving.

 

When I got home to Arlington, only six of the pictures on my walls were off center and one had fallen off a shelf. That's it, no major damage and I live less than two miles from the Pentagon.

 

From what I can tell, there's a typical media over reaction once again. Just because DC felt this quake does not mean it was the world's first earthquake like its being reported. True, the Capitol and older federal buildings will need to be inspected for damage but come on, let's try to keep some perspective here.

[leigh.bess.toad]

It has been upgraded to either 5.9 or 6.0 depending on which report you read.

 

FORTUNATELY, the effects in DC and NYC were more like a 3.0 and 2.0, respectively. 6.0 can cause considerable damage in a direct hit. 2.0/3.0 is more of a curiosity.

 

The epicenter is very near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the U.Va. grounds (not campus), so I won't be surprised to hear of some structural damage there.

 

News reports say it was felt as far away as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

 

This all comes when the area thought their worst worry was hurricane preparedness. Mother nature has a way of saying "I'll get you one way or another!"

 

 

AND CONGRATS DEEJ for crossing the 12,000 post threshhold.

[leigh.bess.toad]

Brought last Saturday night back to mind here in Gotham.

 

Braggart.

[+ deej]

We've now heard from the earthquake babes: Lucy Jones and Kathy Hutton from USGS at Cal State. It isn't an earthquake until those two have been on camera.

 

It was a minor event, they say, all things considered. The biggest in Virginia since 1897, for sure, but still nothing to write home about.

[leigh.bess.toad]

But of course, over on the blogosphere, all the religious kooks are out in force, saying this is god warning America because he's angry at how things are going. I'm sure that gay marriage thing isn't helping.

 

Damn, it was the gays fault we had an earthquake.

[leigh.bess.toad]

We've now heard from the earthquake babes: Lucy Jones and Kathy Hutton from USGS at Cal State.

 

And why do they put that in a place with seismic potential. Sort of like the stupidity of putting the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Florida, which it could be wiped out by another Andrew. Does that make sense?

[Diverdan]

Glad to know that everything is ok for you, Lee. I was thinking of calling you tonight to see if all was well, but will save that for later now that I know all is well for you. I have experienced earthquakes in CA, but never anywhere else.

[+ deej]

And why do they put that in a place with seismic potential. Sort of like the stupidity of putting the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Florida, which it could be wiped out by another Andrew. Does that make sense?

 

Because that's where all the measurements are.

[jawjateck]

The evening news in Atlanta played this up ridiculously, interviewing locals who "felt" the quake, high rise buildings shaking, and evacuating certain places, etc.....bunch of sensationalized crap here. When the quake struck, I was in my building, high up in the sky by the way, sitting at my desk, doing important stuff like surfing rentboy listings and eyeing some porn, well, I didn't feel a dang thang. Guess my building is top notch construction. Glad to hear my friends up nawth survived the scare.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I have experienced earthquakes in CA, but never anywhere else.

 

I have experienced small earthquakes while visiting family in CA. However, the strongest earthquake I personally experienced was in Indianapolis, IN in June of 1987.

[+ deej]

When the quake struck, I was in my building, high up in the sky by the way, sitting at my desk, doing important stuff like surfing rentboy listings and eyeing some porn, well, I didn't feel a dang thang. Guess my building is top notch construction.

 

Or really bad construction.

 

Hi-rise buildings should sway and flex in a quake. It's what makes them survive. If they stay rigid they're more likely to collapse outright in a really bad quake. Of course the really well-built hi-rises sway all the time in the wind anyway so you wouldn't notice a minor shake.

[uwsman2]

I've been living in NYC since 1977 and this is the first earthquake I've actually felt. Was working in my office in lower Manhattan when I had this odd feeling as if the room was slightly rolling up and down. It repeated twice - then the building security announced an evacuation and we all stood out on the street for a few minutes until somebody gave an all-clear signal. I understand there were aftershocks down in Virginia, but I didn't feel anything additional in NYC.

[jawjateck]

Hi-rise buildings should sway and flex in a quake. It's what makes them survive. If they stay rigid they're more likely to collapse outright in a really bad quake. Of course the really well-built hi-rises sway all the time in the wind anyway so you wouldn't notice a minor shake.

 

You got it.....that was my point. The building functioned as designed, just as it did during all of our violent spring storms. I didn't feel anything then, didn't feel anything today. I think people were BS'ing about their apartments shaking and making up stuff just to be on TV.

[leigh.bess.toad]

Because that's where all the measurements are.

 

But why put them there in the 1st place? It would be like putting a Vulcanology Center in the middle of Mauna Loa or Mt. Etna. You don't need to be at the sites where danger is most iminent to study them and do your job. In fact, it would probably be safer and better for these critical services to be out of harm's way.

[+ deej]

There actually are monitoring stations at Mauna Loa and Mt. Etna. It's the kind of thing Republicans want to eliminate, but every time they call for it one of the monitored volcanoes erupts.

 

When you want to measure something, you have to go where it is.

[leigh.bess.toad]

Monitoring stations? Yes they need to be there. And any attempts to cut back on the science needed (be it USGS, NHC, NOAA or whoever) is the ultimate in stupid (and we know how hard it is to fix stupid). Maybe Jon Hunstman is right -- maybe the GOP is the anti-science party.

 

But headquarters, with your top experts do not need to be in harm's way. NHC could do their job just as well from Minot, North Dakota as well as from Coral Gables. USGS doesn't need to be headquartered in California to monitor earthquake activity around the world. (they sure aren't here in Virginia, even though they do have equipment here, I'm sure). The experts are the ones the public need to rely on in case of disaster to help the public know what is going on. Having them at risk at the time they may be needed most is, in my mind, an unnecessary risk.