Author: admin-philhendrieshow-dev

The quake rocked Virginia at 1:51 p.m., and authorities said the epicenter appeared to be in Louisa County, about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The epicenter is not far from Dominion Virginia Power’s North Anna nuclear plant, where the earthquake knocked out power, but the both nuclear units were shut down without incident and no damage was apparent, Dominion said.

“We did lose on-site power, but all the diesel generators are up and running,” Dominion spokesman Richard Zuercher said 30 minutes after the quake. “Everything appears to be operating just fine.”

Zuercher said North Anna’s operators were preparing to manually shut down the units after the quake when the power station’s operating system automatically powered down both units.

The quake _ the largest in Virginia since May 5, 1897, according to the U.S. Geological Survey _ shook buildings and employees were ordered outside across Richmond and other cities in Virginia. Within minutes, Richmond police began receiving calls about possible property damage.

Those calls included a possible stairwell collapse along North First Street downtown, a possible wall collapse along East Broad Street in the city’s East End and a possible wall collapse at a structure along Hioaks Road in South Richmond _ as well as numerous reports of possible gas leaks.

While many of the calls proved unfounded, they kept emergency crews busy throughout the affternoon.

Authorities report no known significant damage or injuries in the counties of Amelia, Charles, Cumberland, Goochland, King and Queen, New Kent and Powhatan and the cities of Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell.

William Harper, an employee with the town of Mineral in Louisa County, reported “some building damage” at the municipal offices, where the telephones were ringing constantly.

The Chesterfield County fire marshal’s office said there were no injuries and “minimal calls” for emergency services but a significant number of calls asking what had happened. Authorities said that if someone’s building appeared undamaged and there were no apparent hazards _ such as the odor of gas, exposed wires or broken pipes _ then it was OK to return inside.

Henrico County reported no confirmed cases of serious damage from the quake. “At this point, we have no reports of significant structural damage,” said Henrico police Lt. Eric D. Owens.

However, Owens asked that anyone in Henrico who experienced significant damage call (804) 501-7809.

Ninety minutes after the quake, Richmond officials said there were no signs of damage to the city’s infrastructure.

Kevin Hall, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner, said the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington “swayed” when the quake hit. Staff was evacuated there, and Hall said it was felt by staff in Abingdon, in Southwest Virginia and at an event Warner was attending in Culpeper, too. 

President Barack Obama and many of the nation’s leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck. The ground shaking was felt on the Martha’s Vineyard golf course as Obama was just starting a round.

The East Coast gets earthquakes, but usually smaller ones and is less prepared than California or Alaska for shaking.

At Reagan National Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell during a few seconds of shaking. Authorities announced it was an earthquake and all flights were put on hold.

At the Pentagon in northern Virginia, a low rumbling built and built to the point that the building was shaking. People ran into the corridors of the government’s biggest building and as the shaking continued there were shouts of “Evacuate! Evacuate!”

In New York, the 26-story federal courthouse in lower Manhattan began swaying and hundreds of people were seen leaving the building. Court officers weren’t letting people back in.

The quake came a day after an earthquake in Colorado toppled groceries off shelves and caused minor damage to homes in the southern part of the state and in northern New Mexico. No injuries were reported as aftershocks continued Tuesday.

In Charleston, W.Va., hundreds of workers left the state Capitol building and employees at other downtown office buildings were asked to leave temporarily.

“The whole building shook,” said Jennifer Bundy, a spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court. “You could feel two different shakes. Everybody just kind of came out on their own.”

In Ohio, where office buildings swayed in Columbus and Cincinnati and the press box at the Cleveland Indians’ Progressive Field shook. At least one building near the Statehouse was evacuated in downtown Columbus.

In downtown Baltimore, the quake sent office workers into the streets, where lamp posts swayed slightly as they called family and friends to check in.

Social media site Twitter lit up with reports of the earthquake from people using the site up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard.

“People pouring out of buildings and onto the sidewalks and Into Farragut Park in downtown DC…,” tweeted Republican strategist Kevin Madden.

“did you feel earthquake in ny? It started in richmond va!” tweeted Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill tweeted that her staff in Washington was in an “emergency location. Hope everyone is ok.”

John Gurlach, air traffic controller at the Morgantown Municipal Airport was in a 40-foot-tall tower when the earth trembled.

“There were two of us looking at each other saying, `What’s that?“’ he said, even as a commuter plane was landing. “It was noticeably shaking. It felt like a B-52 unloading.”

Immediately, the phone rang from the nearest airport in Clarksburg, and a computer began spitting out green strips of paper — alerts from other airports in New York and Washington issuing ground stops “due to earthquake.”