A 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered near Washington, D.C., shook
the East Coast on Tuesday, with shocks felt as far south as Florida
and as far north as Maine and Ontario.
The shaking was felt at the White House and parts of the
Pentagon, sent office workers rushing into the streets of the
nation's capital and rattled nerves in New York City. It came as
the eastern seaboard was busy bracing for a hit from Hurricane
Irene.
The North Anna Power Station, a nuclear plant in central
Virginia, lost off-site power in the wake of the earthquake and was
relying on four diesel generators to maintain cooling operations,
U.S. nuclear officials said.
Seven additional nuclear plants in Virginia, Maryland,
Pennsylvania and New Jersey declared unusual events, the lowest of
four emergency situations. Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy
Corp., the company that owns the Indian Point nuclear plant 50
miles north of New York City, reported "no issues" there after the
quake. The plant is designed to withstand a 7.0-magnitude
quake.
"As far as we know, everything is safe," said Nuclear Regulatory
Commission spokesman David McIntyre.
The control towers at Kennedy International Airport and Newark
Liberty International Airport were evacuated as a precaution and
flights grounded as a precaution, according to a spokesman from the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Flights have
resumed.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 1:51
p.m. at Mineral, Va., 87 miles southwest of the nation's capital.
Initially, the USGS said the quake registered a magnitude 5.8 but
then revised it upward to 5.9. Later in the day, USGS downgraded it
back to 5.8.
The quake was the strongest in the state in 114 years, rivaling
a May 31, 1897, event that occurred in Giles County, in southern
Virginia. The 1897 quake was 5.9 magnitude and was centered over an
area from Lynchburg, Va., to Bluefield, W.Va., and south to
Bristol, Tenn.
Office workers in downtown Washington, unaccustomed to
earthquakes, fled their buildings--but were uncertain what to do
next. Farragut Square, just a couple of blocks from the White
House, was packed. But other workers stood in the sunshine on the
sidewalks outside their buildings, many trying unsuccessfully to
get their cellphones to work.
Capitol Hill was less crowded than usual with Congress deep into
its month-long August recess. Aides who were on Capitol Hill
reported that the earthquake was strong enough to throw items off
of shelves and walls.
In downtown Manhattan, reporters in the press room at the
federal courthouse looked around as the building shook--and then
shook several more times. Soon, they were heading down the stairs
and out of the building along with the occupants of other state and
federal buildings near City Hall and Chinatown.
The evacuees filled a small park north of Worth Street
recounting their experiences inside as ambulance sirens blared and
helicopters hovered overhead. Among those sitting on stone benches
in the park were the Manhattan prosecutors who had just dropped a
criminal case against former International Monetary Fund chief
Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. had just begun a
press conference regarding the dismissal of charges against Mr.
Strauss-Kahn when the room started shaking. Mr. Vance told his
staff everything was O.K., but he and the journalists in the room
were evacuated from the building. Mr. Vance had previously been in
Seattle, where earthquakes are more common.
All of the courthouses and several buildings in lower Manhattan
were evacuated, leaving hundreds of people standing in open spaces
away from buildings.
Amy Noller and Steve Mutton were third in line at the New York
City marriage bureau when they were told they had to leave. So they
ended up standing in the park, she in white her wedding dress and
he in his suit.
"We were just getting ready to go into the chapel when we were
told that we had to evacuate the building," said Ms. Noller. She
said they didn't even feel the quake.
"We're feeling pretty gipped," she said. "We've got to call the
caterer and tell them we're going to be late."
A trader on the New York Stock Exchange floor said the
earthquake was noticeable, but hasn't had an impact on trading. "It
felt like there was a subway train going underneath the building,"
said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner of NYSE floor broker
Meridian Equity Partners. "Everything was vibrating."
All activity stopped for about 20 seconds, and then it was
"business as usual" again, he said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average pared some gains after the
earthquake hit, but closed up 322 points in the trading
session.
Within moments of the earthquake, Twitter lit up with news of it
and the reaction of people who felt the tremors. When it seemed no
real damage was done, the social media site soon filled with
jokes.
Home improvement chain Lowe's evacuated a Fredericksburg, Va.,
store after the earthquake opened a hole in the roof, caused a pipe
to break and cracked some masonry, but no employees or customers
were hurt. A Lowe's spokeswoman said the company had no reports of
injuries or damage from other stores, but noted phone service
remained spotty.
Verizon Wireless said its network was congested for about 20
minutes following the earthquake, but said it had found no evidence
of structural damage to its equipment. Mark Siegel, an AT&T
spokesman said, "We have no reports of network damage but we are
seeing heavy call volumes."
In central North Carolina, 130 miles south of the epicenter, the
tremors sent light bulbs shaking in their fixtures, and brought
people out into the street looking for a potential cause. Karen
Schaefer was stopped at a traffic light in northern Raleigh when
her 1995 Honda Accord began shaking.
"It felt like when you are sitting on a suspension bridge and
you feel it swaying," said Ms. Schaefer, 22. "But I knew I wasn't
on a suspension bridge."
Bobby Seaberry, owner of a car repair business and used car lot
in Mineral, Va., the epicenter of the earthquake, was doing a brake
repair job when he felt the ground rise several feet underneath
him. The quake broke several windows in the tiny town, where many
people ran outside to see if a train had derailed, Mr. Seaberry
said.
"It felt like it went up three or four feet and vibrated and
(came) right back down," he said. "It was quite a scare."
--David Wessel, Chad Bray, Michael Rothfeld, Sumathi Reddy, Dana
Mattioli, Jon Kamp, Valerie Bauerlein, Steven Rusolillo, Greg
Bensinger, Maxwell Murph, Mark Anderson, Elizabeth Holmes, Alan
Zibel and Andrew Ackerman contrubuted to this article.
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