I'm also in NJ, on the coastline, and definitely felt it.

Was anyone riding at the time?

Felt it near Cleveland. I thought I was having a seizure or something for a second, then whipped around thinking someone was shaking my chair. Once I realized I wasn't hallucinating or having an aura, I was like "Oh, it's an earthquake!!". We lost internet for about 30 minutes, which was aggravating and forced me to be productive.

Felt here in Toronto! It wasn't that bad. Philippines had way worse quakes being on the ring of fayaaaarr..

I'm in Dallas and didn't feel a thing.
My son in Charleston West Virginia called me and said he felt it.
I read reports it was felt in Cleveland and in Toronto.

Marty

Felt it pretty strongly here in Allentown - I'm on the 2nd floor and first thing I did was head outside. My first quake.

Silly east coasters. I love earthquakes (so long as no one gets hurt). I'm a geologist that grew up in southern california and I remember the tiles rippling in my parents house during the Northridge earthquake. So cool. Enjoy the ride.

Yep. I'm in Fredericksburg, VA. About 40 miles from the epicenter. It was pretty crazy! We had to evacuate the building and everything. I was in my wife's classroom getting ready for school to start next week when it happened. We looked at each other, and at first I remember thinking "That's one powerful floor buffer upstairs," before I realized how stupid that was. But yea, it was pretty awesome.

I'm in eastern NC, and my wife says it was pretty noticeable in her office. But I was out on my bike and I didn't notice a thing. Let's hear it for the Raleigh DL-1 -- smoothest ride around!

In RVA, about forty miles from Mineral, quake's epicenter. Sustained shock, quite noticable. I was teaching and had my kids out the door within seconds; I was the only teacher in the building who had ever been in a quake. The screws in the ductwork in the classroom next door came out, and we had several flourescent lights come out of the fixtures and crash to the floor thru the building.

My first thought, once I found out the epicenter, was the two Nuclear plants right on top of it. They're shut down for now.

Heh heh, they are NOT shut down, they are just off the grid. Shutting them down takes a LONG time.

Which one?

Felt in Providence Rhode Island where I was working this afternoon, not cool at all.

felt in nyc too. it was as if someone's jerking off across my desk... yeah i know...
anyway. it was somewhat frightening...

Eeeewwwww....

Earthquakes aren't supposed to be wet, orangeology.

I felt it out here in California, too.

Oh wait,... that can't be.

Hey!, what was THAT?

EARTHQUAKE!!!

:-)


^ j/k

I hope everybody and everything is okay back there.

Just so you know, I have an emergency preparedness kit ("earthquake kit") right here at my feet in my office. It has everything I need to get me home, even if I have to walk. (<-- Yes, it has a decent pair of walking shoes in it, too, as well as food, water, trash bag, paper towels, dust mask, bandana, flashlight, radio, batteries, whistle,... all sorts of stuff stored in a knap sack so I can grab it and go and carry it on my back if I have to walk home.)

orangeology, that type of statement is not in good tast. JMO

Thanks for the not-so-reassurance. I saw some shots of the Louisa/Mineral area. Since this is the east coast, buildings here are not built for earthquakes. It looks like Louisa High School is structurally compromised, and I assume Louisa Middle, where I once taught, is likewise (built at the same time, right next door to each other). The aisles of the Food Lion in Louisa are a wreck. I would hope the North Anna reactors are built to a higher standard. I'm a bit concerned, I still have friends in that county. It looks a mess.

This was the strongest earthquake on the east coast in a century, and of course it happens right under some nukes. We might also get a hurricane this weekend. Disaster central.

In Maryland near DC, it shook pretty good! I got shoved out of my office 'till it was inspected, so I went for a ride!

Montpelier, VA. 15 miles from the epicenter. No problems, other than a couple of terrified cats (Linus wouldn't come out from under the bed until I scritched him first). From what I've been getting, anyone from Manassas to Philadelphia seemed to get more effect than I did here. Oh yeah, I'm within easy bicycling distance of the South Anna nuclear plant. I've still got one head and ten fingers.

And while I'm writing this, we just got another shock.

Lots of west coasters on some other comment sections on the net being pretty smug, saying things like no big deal, we get them every day...

I grew up about three miles from the San Andreas, and have gotten up in the morning with the bed a few inches from the wall. Yeah, you get used to it. But I bet that there would be some seriously soiled drawers if a city full of Southern Californians saw a funnel cloud coming at them, and folks doing things that were the equivalent of running out into the street in a quake.

Been in hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, near a couple tornadoes, every one of them frightening in thier way. All that can be done is pick up the peices, pick up your neighbor, hope everyone is ok, and don't ridicule someone who has never experienced something scary that you take for granted. So heres hopeing that everything is OK with everyone.

We get tornadoes here in SoCal, too. They aren't the massive CAT5 jobbies like the midwest and it isn't an annual occurence but we do get them. They usually come in off the Ocean and aren't big enough to last too long or do the terrible damage you see in "Tornado Alley" or elsewhere.

One (good) factoid - the building features you use to make a house hurricane-proof and tornado-proof are the same provisions you use to make a house earthquake-proof. I know many areas back east have implemnented mandatory hurricane reinforcement measures.

I think the real difference between here and there will end up being in the unreinforced masonry buildings. We have a few left standing but if it is a public building it has to be retrofitted with reinforcements. I know the east has lots of unreinforced, non-retrofitted buildings, so you may find damage in those out of proportion to the stick frame and steel framed buildings.

The other thing that differs is the geology. Easterners are all on one gigantic granite plate. When it rocks anywhere, it rocks everywhere (even 1,000 miles away). It is predicted that an 8.0 on the New Madrid, MO fault will be felt and may knock down buildings in Boston (most at risk are the unreinforced masonry buildings (bricks)).

California's plates are different and the quake's energy isn't transmitted over as wide an area. <-- that's good, right? The bad news for us is, our soils are much more sandy (which is what absorbs the quake's energy) but this leads to liquifaction. <--- that's BAD!

I was writing up a work order for a customers Bridgestone RB-T and the store shook and the bike fell over. Slightly unnerving

uhhh. sorry for an inappropriate metaphor, fellas... dunno why i had that sorta idea, but it was somewhat shaky...
damn i am making it worse, ain't i?

glad no one got hurt, anyways.