How'd you folks on the east coast handle that Earthquake?

[splanky]

We felt in in New York City, on my job when it happened. How about you guys closer
to Virginia where it originated?....

[blueskies]

My Rottweilers ears flew up....and so did mine!

[MotownSteve]

I'm in NJ about 30 minutes South East of Times Square and I felt it. Did not know what it was until I got an email about it.

[marv2]

It rocked my World here on Long Island. LOL! I was sitting in my chair at my desk and I thought I may have dosed off and was involuntarily rocking my chair back and forth. When I cleared my head, I purposely tried to sit still but the chair kept rocking back and forth which then I immediately knew we were having an Earthquake. I stood and the floor shook!

[smooth]

Marv 2,Motown Steve and Blueskies...Glad to know you are all O.K.
Out here in California we get shook all the time!
My Mother lives in Virginia and it shook pretty violently there.

Smooth

[soulster]

You guys may as well quit being scared of going to Cali now!

[smark21]

Having lived in California twice, it was nothing much. My office is on the 7th floor and the file cabinet next to me shook a bit and I thought, "oh, it's an earthquake, but nothing major". Some of my co workers were freaked out though, including one woman who thought a tsunami was imminent.

[stephanie]

People in Cali are laughing at those of us [[myself included) who have never experienced anything quite like this. I wasnt as scared as I thought I would be. I began to tell my boss I loved him and my co-workers in case anything devastating happened. Interesting feeling but I dont want it to happen again. Having lived in the DC area I have felt a tremor before but nothing like this. God thank you for sparing our lives and I mean that.

[moe]

I was in my office [[my chair has wheels on it) and I almost fell off the chair from the rumbling.
The best I read came from Dyva on Facebook!!!

[daviddesper]

Looks like I am the closest on here geographically to the earthquake, as I live about 60 miles west of the epicenter. I was in my office when it hit and my first reaction was to think it was a helicopter flying overhead. But the more things shook, the more I had to accept that it actually WAS an earthquake! I am 59 years old and had never experienced one, so you can understand why I didn't immediately recognize one!

Anyway, within 10 minutes everyone was calling everyone else to ask what they thought and sharing their stories, and within half an hour all the news channels were covering it and they had pinpointed and measured it. There have been some scattered stories of minimal damage but with that sort of thing, rumors tend to fly more than truth. In my house and office, even the tiniest of knick-knacks on desks and shelves stayed put, so I can't imagine anyone experiencing any major damage from it. But I guess next will be the inevitable question of whether or not this is just the start of something bigger for us.

I have heard over the years of Virginia having minor ones measuring 3 point something, but never anything like this to my recollection that you could actually feel.

[daviddesper]

Well as some of you may have seen already, I owe the residents of my state an apology! I had made my earlier post just based on my observations around my own area and from talking to a few other folks. I had not yet seen any official newscasts.

But when I watched the 11:00 news, it certainly changed my mind about how serious an event this had been. They showed some scenes from Mineral and Louisa, the two towns that were most seriously impacted, and those two towns definitely had some significant damage.

They showed grocery stores with their entire inventory shaken on to the floor, they showed schools, churches and other solid brick buildings with two-inch gaps in their walls or with chimneys/steeples damaged or toppled, and they showed a couple of homes that looked as if they had been ransacked by burglars. Those two towns, for those of you who are not familiar, have maybe 500-1,000 people each and the closest major city is Richmond.

They also interviewed some folks and one of the things that came up in some of their discussions is that little if any of the damage will be covered by insurance. Apparently around here, earthquakes are not considered a "coverable" calamity. Anyway my lesson of the day has been to gather a few more facts before issuing a report!

[nosey]

Was at work and saw my copier swaying back and forth and knew what it was and immediately "left the building". I wasn't afraid but cautious by leaving. It lasted all of about 30 secs so it wasn't bad at all.

[soulster]