Today's 5.8 magnitude earthquake here in Virginia was quite an experience! I was at work sitting at my desk around 1:50pm when I felt the building starting to shake. The initial tremor was mild to moderate and the second wave of shaking was much stronger and lasted approximately 45 seconds. As the tremor got stronger the drop ceiling in the office I share with 3 others fell down on the north side of the room. Luckily it fell on the opposite side of the room from our desks and we were able to run out of the room before it fell further. The building management had us stand outside the building for an hour and a half before allowing us to run back inside to grab purses and keys so that we could head home. We were told there was a possible gas leak in the building that was caused by the quake. I later found out that instead of running outside away from the building, we should have just stayed inside and crawled under our desks. Oops... In Kansas we practice tornado drills, not earthquake drills!
The news is saturated with earthquake coverage and interviews -
MSNBC,
Washington Post,
CNN. The local news station is covering damage reports - In Vienna, a brick wall collapsed on a car, in D.C. the national cathedral suffered some damage. The majority of office buildings and all government buildings have been evacuated and there is widespread gridlock throughout the area as everyone tries to get home.
When I got home, Alex poked his head out from under the sofa. The poor little guy was probably scared out of his mind. A decorative plate in our kitchen had fallen and shattered on counter, a couple of wine glasses had fallen and broken, pictures on the walls were askew, and small items had fallen off of shelves. No cracks in the walls or anything severe. Josh and I are both fine. Since we've been here, we've had blizzards, excessive heat warnings, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes and next up, hurricane Irene!
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