Earthquake in VA

[Mr. Ford95]

In case anyone was wondering, myself and everyone I know is safe. It struck about 22 miles south of the house. No structural damage here, just a bunch of items knocked over and a lot of scared people. I was actually driving home so I never felt the full effect of it. It struck just a few miles from North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, everything is fine there, all systems and checks worked properly for this type of incident.

[Malaki86]

Just got off the phone with my wife. The house shook there, which is about 30 miles southwest of Morgantown, WV. No damage at all, but said that stuff was moving around on the floor & tables. I haven't felt anything in Cincinnati.

[Mr. Ford95]

In-laws in Cincy felt it, they said downtown high rises were swaying like crazy. Reports coming in now say it was felt as far West as Chi-town, North into Canada and South to the SC-GA line.

My truck started swaying around on me like it was a windy day out, wind has been calm all day though.......weird feeling.

[Malaki86]

That's strange - must be because of my exact location in Cincy. I'm pretty much at the northern junction of 275/75 (or maybe it's 71 - I didn't drive it).

[Orangetxguy]

In case anyone was wondering, myself and everyone I know is safe. It struck about 22 miles south of the house. No structural damage here, just a bunch of items knocked over and a lot of scared people. I was actually driving home so I never felt the full effect of it. It struck just a few miles from North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, everything is fine there, all systems and checks worked properly for this type of incident.

Check under the house. Look at all of the under-shoring, main beams, foundation corners.....everything that bares weight. 5.8-5.9 is big enough to cause problems that you wouldn't realize can happen. When things fall the building had to move enough to make them fall.

[Mr. Ford95]

I'm on a full basement so it's hard to check the foundation. Everything is fine, already checked all that can be checked here. My parents house has a couple of walls damaged, drywall popped. My shed moved a good inch on the concrete blocks it sits on.

It was so shallow that it was more like a 3 coming thru at my place. Town 15 miles West of me has streets closed and building front's laying in the streets. Supposedly we've had several strong aftershocks of 4-5.5 since I've been home yet I've felt absolutely nothing, mile from me has been getting them though per a friend.

[Mr. Ford95]

Just felt an aftershock of around a 4, totally wicked cool feeling. It literally felt like a train rumbling past the house for about 30 seconds.

[cdswans]

The USGS is reporting the quake occurred along a previously undiscovered fault. The Obama Administration says the newly discovered fault has been named "Bush's Fault".

And this from Ann Coulter: Twitter "Capitol evacuated, nation experiences brief economic recovery..."

[Mr. Ford95]

Nah, it's a known fault. In 2003 the same fault put off 2 quakes in the same area, the first was a 3, a few months later a 4 hit that left a number of homes damaged in Nelson Co right on the side of the mountains. In the early 90's it put off a nice little 3.5 shock in the middle of the night. A number of homes in Louisa, VA are damaged, the High School is pretty torn up per the TV in Richmond. Today was their first day back to school, now they are off until further notice.

[MichiganDriver]

Nah, it's a known fault. In 2003 the same fault put off 2 quakes in the same area, the first was a 3, a few months later a 4 hit that left a number of homes damaged in Nelson Co right on the side of the mountains. In the early 90's it put off a nice little 3.5 shock in the middle of the night. A number of homes in Louisa, VA are damaged, the High School is pretty torn up per the TV in Richmond. Today was their first day back to school, now they are off until further notice.

It hardly matters but Ford, dude, the poster wasn't talking about fault lines, they were taking a shot at our liberal President Obama. That doesn't mean I don't think it was a clever jab, just saying it was 100% political. But like Hobo said, "fair and balanced".

[Malaki86]

Just saw this photo of the damage in the DC area. My prayers are with everyone affected by this disaster:

DC Earthquake Devastation - jmckinley's posterous

[mitchno1]

like what we have had in New Zealand the first one loosens everything the next one does the damage,hopefully not to you folks

[MichiganDriver]

like what we have had in New Zealand the first one loosens everything the next one does the damage,hopefully not to you folks

Sounds like my morning coffee.

[geeshock]

same, my wife just felt some shaking, like the washer was on spin cycle or something

[Jackrabbit379]

I have a cousin that is an optometrist in Virginia. He lives in McLean. He said he felt the quake. He said it was the strangest feeling. Somehow, he knew what was happening, but kinda scary.

[Mr. Ford95]

Still no damage here after further inspections, looks like my area got off very light. Germanna Community College's East campus got hammered pretty bad near the 126 MM on I-95. A number of homes along I-95 from the 120 area up to about the 135 suffered some structural damage, a lot of it was minor though. The Washington Monument is closed till further notice, the top was found to be all messed up. Louisa Co High School and Mineral Town Hall got destroyed pretty badly. North Anna appears to have suffered no trouble at all though they should see some revisions for earthquakes now. They were only rated to take up to a 6.1, a 5.8 is a little too close for comfort. No serious injuries took place, very very lucky for an area that does not have very stringent Earthquake codes which are basically non-existant. Thankfully it was a very shallow shaker or that 5.8 would have done a real number on us.

[robertt]

Well, you guy's made it throught the earthquake but it looks like IRENE is going to be worse. How far inland are you Mr.Ford? It looks like you guys, the Mid-Atlantic, are going to get hammered. I still keep in touch with some friends in Delaware so I'll be getting first person updates from there also. Good luck, I'll be keeping up.

[Mr. Ford95]

I'm plenty far inland to avoid the storm surge and such. Good news is, I'm heading for Nashville in the morning so it doesn't bother me. I doubt it's going to be as bad as Isabell was. Just a lot of rain more than likely but we will be sitting in the worst quadrant as it passes by, the Southwest. Around here we are joking that it's the end of the world, large earthquake and a large hurricane back to back, now we need a large snowstorm within the next week to complete the trifecta! Friggin storm this afternoon was pretty nasty but nothing like it will be when Irene rolls past, hard to tell if it was another aftershock or thunder. Had a nasty aftershock last night at 1 am, 4.5 that woke most of the Mid-Atlantic.

[robertt]

I'm plenty far inland to avoid the storm surge and such. Good news is, I'm heading for Nashville in the morning so it doesn't bother me. I doubt it's going to be as bad as Isabell was. Just a lot of rain more than likely but we will be sitting in the worst quadrant as it passes by, the Southwest. Around here we are joking that it's the end of the world, large earthquake and a large hurricane back to back, now we need a large snowstorm within the next week to complete the trifecta! Friggin storm this afternoon was pretty nasty but nothing like it will be when Irene rolls past, hard to tell if it was another aftershock or thunder. Had a nasty aftershock last night at 1 am, 4.5 that woke most of the Mid-Atlantic.

You may be driving in some heavy rain some of the way there and all the way back. Uggghhh. It would be nice for us, not necessarily Tx, if we had a strom like this come up through the Gulf and drop some rain on us.

[Mr. Ford95]

I'm leaving in a few minutes, no rains and not planning on being in any unless we hit a front from the West. I will be well out of the way by 4 pm this afternoon. They are saying she's 430 miles wide, 215 from the eye. The eye is expected to pass over VA Beach, side to side, the house is 100-150 miles from the coast. She's gonna be just like Isabell.