Earthquake on the East Coast

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Sure felt the quake here in ALX. Ran out of the house - it got that bad. A few things knocked over, pictures and paintings on the wall went askew, a previous crack in the wall looks a bit bigger now and still no landline. It certainly made for an interesting afternoon.

WTOP is reporting:

Union Station was closed temporarily. When it reopened there was a noticeable hole in the ceiling at the main entrance and caution tape was strung up around a large area on the floor below.
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Also:

Marc Trains have been suspended until further notice.
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UPDATE From MARC at 4:30:

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - 4:30pm

Update #6 (4:30pm).

Trains are departing Union Station, but operating at greatly reduced speed. Delays of 60-90 minutes en route are likely.

There is significant overcrowding at Union Station. Please note that boarding for each train will be stopped when trains reach a safe capacity. We ask for your patience this afternoon and please follow directions and instructions provided by Amtrak and MARC station personel.

Emails are taking a long time to send due to the overwhelming load on the internet.

More updates will be provided as information becomes available.
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And:

All Metro trains are operating at 15 mph and Metro personnel are conducting track inspections of the entire rail system. Customers should expect significant delays on Metro.
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jb64 said:
we felt it here in the Shenandoah Valley. My daughter lives in Fairfax and said she felt it strong enough that she went and stood in her doorway. We didn't feel it that strongly here even though we would be closer to the alleged epicenter. Interesting.
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Take it from an earthquake veteran and Search & Rescue guy, DON"T stand in a doorway. They are the weakest part of a wall. Get down next to something very sturdy (e.g. couch, refrigerator). When things fall down it usually forms a triangular pocket in those places.
 
we definitely felt it in Richmond. It knocked my cat off his perch on top of the fridge.. he's unharmed but not amused. Last report I saw said the NEC is now running at full speed north of Baltimore.

probably way too soon and distasteful joke of the day.. maybe the quake straightened out some of the rough Buckingham Branch trackage that the Cardinal uses.
 
According to the Amtrak FB page all trains are running normal from BAL-BOS.

It might take a few more hours for things below that to get up to speed.
 
Linda T said:
We're leaving on the Card in the morning and heading to CVS, there we're to take the bus to Richmond where we have a mid-19th century hotel (probably not earthquake safe) for 3 nights. This could turn very interesting. And here I thought the biggest thing I had to worry about was Irene flooding. :eek:hboy:

I called Amtrak and inquired and the Card is expected to run on schedule (probably cause it hasn't left CHI yet). :rolleyes: Trains in and out of Richmond are running on reduced speed, but are running, so... And my hotel was not damaged. Apparently very little damage done. The following is from the Richmond Times Dispatch http://www2.timesdis...oas-ar-1256961/

Ya know, this was supposed to happen when I did my last trip on the Coast Starlight, NOT when I'm going to Richmond. :help: Wow, Amtrak, seems to be an unexpected adventure, most of the time!
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No damage in Richmond, I work 20 miles SE of Richmond and we shook for about 20 seconds. Really nothing more than some minor turbulence on an airplane.

Would the 19th century hotel be The Jefferson? If so really nice place for sure. You wouldn't have to worry about Irene flooding there as it sits at the top of the hill. You would want to stay out of Shockoe Bottom though.
 
Funny thing, looking at the USGS map for earthquakes within the last week and seeing only one big earthquake in the 10 degree by 10 degree square, a couple of small aftershocks and only a couple of other small ones elsewhere.

Let’s put this in perspective:

In the 10 by 10 square that includes much of California, there were 354 quakes, with 7 being at 3.0 and above and none above 3.9.

Outside the US the USGS site only shows quakes of 4.0 or larger.

If we look at the 10 by10 square that includes Sendai, it shows 23 quakes of 4.0 and above, with 4 of these being at 5.0 to 5.9 and 2 being above 6.0.

Of course there are three things that make this Virginia quake of note.

1. It is in an area that does not normally have quakes.

2. The affected area was huge.

3. It is in the area where government and media are concentrated.
 
Aloha

My Sister lives near DC and sent me an E-mail saying they were fine but quite a few books were on the floor, Power had been out along with phone and internet. At the time of her E-mail the phone was still out. That was about 2-3 hours ago.
 
NY Penn said:
WMATA is operating at 15 mph for the rest of the day (actually, until further notice).
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As a result of the earthquake, or simply because it's Metro?
 
Here in RI, I was wasting time on - er I meant reading - AU
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and didn't feel a thing. However, shortly after, I received a UPS delivery and the UPS driver said numerous people on Main Street (about 1/2 mile away) said they felt it!
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We were evacuated on the Lower East Side, though there was no subway disruption from what I could tell. (To be fair, though, our "subway" is actually a limited-stop bus in this part of town, and we mightn't've noticed had there been any disruption.)
 
I was on Route 309 in PA going about 85 MPH and my car just started shaking harder then normal. So I slowed down to 65. My car kept doing it. Soon after it stopped. I got to work and someone came in freaking out about it. That's how I found out about it. Quite the day for the East Coast. Next, Hurricane Irene.. OOOPS! I mean.. Nothing.. :lol:
 
Steve, I'm surprized that your car was on the ground at 85 mph.

It was good there were no police patroling in that area!!
 
It is interesting that the reason that the quake was felt over such a wide area is apparently because the entire area is on one solid tectonic plate with no breaks. So metaphorically, and perhaps even literally, the entire plate vibrated like a bell, transmitting the vibrations from the epicenter far and wide. This apparently does not happen out west because the plates there are chopped up into little pieces by significant faults, even though the strength of the quakes at the epicenter are much larger.
 
We just had a small 1 last night in northern cali(bay area), nothing were not used to tho
 
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