Earthquake Hits Virginia and DC -- Tremors Felt in New York City

At about 1:50 p.m. Tuesday an earthquake, centered around Mineral Springs, Va., caused tremors in several surrounding U.S. states, according to Reuters. The earthquake was originally reported as having a magnitude of 5.8, and has most recently been reported as being a 5.9 magnitude quake. It was felt along the East Coast and as far north as Buffalo, NY, according to USA Today.

My sister lives in Springfield Virginia and I was just able to reach her by phone. She said the tremors were very bad there and they ran downstairs to the basement which they thought would be the safest place. She said the furniture was shaking and her glass table was making noise as it shook. She was scared because she thought that shaking was just the beginning and that it was going to get worse.

In Staten Island, NY, the tremors shook my house. There were about 4 or 5 rolling tremors and it stopped, but I could see the ceiling fan shaking and could hear food in the pantry shaking about slightly after the big tremors passed. At first I thought it was related to the construction going on on the next door neighbors' house. I looked out the window to see if I could see trees or cars shaking or any other sign that it was an earthquake, but by then the big tremors were done.

My husband then called me from work in Brooklyn and asked me if I felt anything. He said he and his coworkers evacuated the building when they first felt the tremors, but went back inside the building almost immediately afterwards when they realized it had ended. I then went online and turned the T.V. on to find out what was going on. I wasn't finding anything when I typed "NYC earthquake" into Google. Finally, on NBC I found out that the quake was centered in VA.

My neighbors are all talking about the quake. Earthquakes are an unusual occurrence for New Yorkers. According to NBC New Yorkers are just confused about the whole thing, and many office buildings in Manhattan have been evacuated.

All this makes me think about earthquake preparedness. I really don't know what I'd do or what I should do if a major earthquake ever hit New York City. After today I'll definitely research it in order to be better prepared.

Sources:
USA Today
CNN's This Just In Blog