East Coasters . . . Did you feel that?

[Logan Sapphire]

Northern VA here too. Definitely felt it. DH was downtown and his building evacuated, as did apparently many others.

 

[Autumnovember]

I'm in Philadelphia, I was in a parking garage below ground and did not feel a thing.

So shocked though. People are saying there are "after waves".....?

What's really strange is that a few of my friends were out to dinner together last week and we talked about earthquakes and how none of us except for one has ever felt one.

I got an alert text from my school stating that the campus "shook" but everyone is ok and then a voicemail from my apartment building in downtown Philly, stating that people in the building felt it but no damage occured.

I'm freaked out.

When my mom and I were leaving the parking garage it was 1:55 PM and I decided I wanted to drive her around the city...

I noticed that there were TONS of people all over the place and I know that it gets busy in the city in the afternoon because there are lots of work people but this was insanely unusual to see and I kept telling my mom "this isn't normal...what's going on?"

She kept demanding it WAS normal and it was "lunch hour."

Now it makes perfect sense...

I wonder if the reason why I did not feel anything was because I was below ground?

 

[chemgirl]

Felt it here in Toronto!

 

[vc10um]

Alexandria, VA, here! TOTALLY felt it in my 7th floor office. Stood in my doorframe until it passed and then we were evacuated.

 

[Autumnovember]

What I wanna know is.....for those of you at home with pets, how did they react prior, during, and after?

 

[lovebug1031]

Felt it here in Raleigh. Never having been near a quake before, I thought they were doing work on the roof and decided to run around and jump on it. Freaked my cat out, she ran under the bed. Only then did I see that all my stuff was shaking. Neighbor said it was a tremor but I laughed and said we were too far away from any fault lines. Learned later it was in VA. Apparently there is not even a fault line in Mineral, VA where it originated. Crazy!

correct we don't live on a fault line but the area the epicenter was reported is a seismic zone (theres a good map about halfway down the page)

http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/quake.html

 

[jlp86]

What I wanna know is.....for those of you at home with pets, how did they react prior, during, and after?

It was too minimal here in Boston. We have a dog and a bird and neither flinched. I was the only one curious about what was going on.

 

[sweet_pea]

Yes, and I'm in NC.

 

[sweet_pea]

autumnlover, I don't know how my dog acted because she was outside at the time, but my cats kind of slinked out of the room like they do when they're scared.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

What I wanna know is.....for those of you at home with pets, how did they react prior, during, and after?

CA resident here, so speaking of earthquakes generally rather than this VA one specifically.

For each of our dogs over the years, at the first one they experience they instinctively become hyperalert, look around to find the "pack leader" human as if awaiting instruction/guidance. After the first few aftershocks, they learn the behavior humans demonstrate as desireable and repeat it: thus, the larger dogs look for the owner then run to the doorframe to which the owner is headed, whereas the little dogs run to the owner to be picked up and brought with the owner to the doorframe to be held during the quake. When no one was at home and there had been no damage, we have come home to dogs exhibiting their normal behavior (i.e. getting up from a nap at the sound of keys in the front door, not particularly stressed).

Oh, and none of them have exhibited clairvoyancy.

 

[Autumnovember]

What I wanna know is.....for those of you at home with pets, how did they react prior, during, and after?

CA resident here, so speaking of earthquakes generally rather than this VA one specifically.

For each of our dogs over the years, at the first one they experience they instinctively become hyperalert, look around to find the "pack leader" human as if awaiting instruction/guidance. After the first few aftershocks, they learn the behavior humans demonstrate as desireable and repeat it: thus, the larger dogs look for the owner then run to the doorframe to which the owner is headed, whereas the little dogs run to the owner to be picked up and brought with the owner to the doorframe to be held during the quake. When no one was at home and there had been no damage, we have come home to dogs exhibiting their normal behavior (i.e. getting up from a nap at the sound of keys in the front door, not particularly stressed).

Oh, and none of them have exhibited clairvoyancy.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

My mom and I were just talking about how her dog acted prior to an earthquake years ago.

She told me the opposite, the dog was unusually tugging at her skirt for a little bit before the earthquake happened. When he wasn't doing that, he was barking to go outside. Weird!

 

[vsc]

felt it here in NC... it was like a low helicopter, or standing on an overpass while cars/trucks are driving on it.
The cat was a little bit frightened during the shaking, but did not exhibit atypical behavior before or after.

 

[Ara Ann]

There are reports of feeling this as far north as Michigan too, but I didn't feel anything...


We did have one several years ago and I DID feel that one, so yeah, it is a very weird thing to experience!

 

[jlp86]

There are reports of feeling this as far north as Michigan too, but I didn't feel anything...


We did have one several years ago and I DID feel that one, so yeah, it is a very weird thing to experience!

I live on the East Coast now but I just moved from Illinois. Was the one from a few years ago in the middle of the night? We had one in the middle of the night like 2-3years ago that startled us all awake.


EDIT: I looked up the IL earthquake and it was February of 2010. Not several years ago. So maybe different quakes.

 

[ruby59]

My cat suddenly stopped what he was doing. His eyes became very wide and he just stood there. Then he got down real low and ran behind the couch.

 

[diamondringlover]

I live a little bit northeast of Columbus Ohio and I did not feel it, I was working at my desk at the time...so I would have felt it if it shook here..

 

[cookies]

Yes. The whole office building shook for a few minutes. Lots of people freaked out and ran out to the street. Someone in our office pointed out that it might be more dangerous to stay outside because the buildings on the two sides of the street could collapse on you. So everyone in our office stayed inside.

 

[wakingdreams53]

Felt it pretty badly in Brooklyn, NY.
Then again, my building shakes every time the bus passes. There was a good moment of "was that a bus?... wait.... holy sh!t, earthquake!!!"
Nothing fell or anything, but my heart definitely nearly shot out of my chest.

I'm just afraid of aftershocks.

 

[Verdy]

Felt it pretty heavily in Sterling, VA. We were actually serving lunch when our house started rattling. Some decorative plates we had on the wall fell down and broke...So far there have been two aftershocks, one at 2:46 at 2.8 and one at 3:30 at 2.2. Let's hope there's nothing after that, I haven't felt an earthquake since I was 4 in Honduras!

 

[zoebartlett]

I was at a workshop today and was completely oblivious. Others around me felt it though. I'm north of Boston.

 

[AGBF]

I drove in yesterday for the earthquake. No, really. I've been living in Connecticut without making a single trip to Virginia since January, but yesterday evening I arrived here so that I could go to a doctor's appointment at noon today!

I went to see my doctor, then drove back towards my house. Instead of going home, I decided to go look for some clothes because my soon-to-be ex-husband had asked if I wanted to go dancing tonight. So I drove on to McLean, Virginia and went to a dress shop. In there someone made a reference to an earthquake. I answered politely. At around 6:00, after having had trouble with my cell phone all day and wondering if it was because I was close to the darn CIA, I finally reached my husband.

That's when he asked if I had heard there had been an earthquake and said people were being evacuated*! I had had no idea! We aren't really that far from Richmond, where the epicenter was...maybe 100-150 miles! But I must have been in the car, driving. That's how I failed to feel one in Colombia, South America back in 1992, too!!! They can put that on my tombstone: "she went through earthquakes and never knew it".

*There were a bunch of messages from him on our home phone-from his office. I heard sirens in the background. He is in an official building. Staff were evacuated then cleared to re-enter. The same happened with Congress. The Smithsonian was closed.

Deb/AGBF

 

[soocool]

What I wanna know is.....for those of you at home with pets, how did they react prior, during, and after?

My dog was next to me sleeping while I was reading. He slept through the whole thing. I wish he would sleep that soundly at night!

 

[AmeliaG]

That's so funny AGBF! Nobody around me felt this earthquake either. I think its only because I was in my old rickety bed and it really didn't feel like an earthquake. It was very subtle; I didn't know what it was.

When I was in South Carolina, we had a small earthquake and I definitely felt that - the plates were rattling, the ground seemed to shake but this time it was barely noticeable.

 

[Clio]

I definitely felt it in downtown DC! Our office building started shaking like crazy in the middle of a routine staff meeting. Initially, we all thought it might be a bomb (given our location) and were pretty relieved to find out it was only an earthquake.

They did evacuate our building and will be inspecting it before letting us back in. It's an older building that has not always been well maintained, so I'm glad. We have a tower on the building, and my friend who works on a higher floor says the tower was really swaying. I know they're engineered to do that, but it's still freaky!

 

[lizzyann]

I'm in Western Massachusetts and I personally did not feel it. But many people in neighboring cities felt it. Glad to hear everyone is ok.

 

[missy]

I was in Tribeca today and it felt like the building was swaying and I got a bit queasy. I tend to get motion sickness very easily.
Right away I knew it was an earthquake though I have never experienced one before. No one evacuated and we went on with our day business as usual. I'm really thankful no one was injured and it was *just* a mild earthquake. When I think back to almost 10 years ago and I was in the same building, same weather...well, just saying I'm glad it was this and not something else.

 

[junebug17]

Central New Jersey (vicinity of Elizabeth, not far from NY) didn't feel a thing (my mother's house)

South Jersey: son felt it! Was pretty freaked out.

Husband works in Philly: felt it, the whole building shook!

So strange!

 

[AGBF]

That's so funny AGBF! Nobody around me felt this earthquake either. I think its only because I was in my old rickety bed and it really didn't feel like an earthquake. It was very subtle; I didn't know what it was.

When I was in South Carolina, we had a small earthquake and I definitely felt that - the plates were rattling, the ground seemed to shake but this time it was barely noticeable.

Where are you now, Amelia?

Deb

 

[missy]

What I wanna know is.....for those of you at home with pets, how did they react prior, during, and after?

I wasn't at home when it happened but when I got home after work they were totally acting weird. First of all they didn't run to the door to greet me and when they came out as I started feeding them they didn't run up to the food but instead seemed to want reassurance all was OK. They seemed very tentative and unlike themselves when I first got home and I actually had to coax them to eat. Now they are back to their normal selves and all is good. Animals are very sensitive and I wish I or my dh had been home to comfort them when the quake occurred.

 

[centralsquare]

Not on the East Coast, but I can only imagine how scary it was for everyone since you don't feel them often and aren't prepared for them. Hope that everyone's homes are ok and that their pets are calming down. As a native Californian, I'd say keep shoes by your bed and don't hang anything over your bed!!!