Earthquake in Virginia - all ok?

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:45 pm

I have seen on the news here in NZ that the largest earthquake in around 100 years has struck Virginia and was felt in Washington DC and New York.

I hope all the Wix members in those areas are ok, and I also hope that now warbirds and museums were harmed in the quake.

Thinking of you guys and girls.

51fixer · **Posted:** Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:04 pm

Dave Homewood wrote:

I have seen on the news here in NZ that the largest earthquake in around 100 years has struck Virginia and was felt in Washington DC and New York.

I hope all the Wix members in those areas are ok, and I also hope that now warbirds and museums were harmed in the quake.

Thinking of you guys and girls.

The many years I lived in Calif I lived through a number of earth shaking events.
At POF in Chino we parked the A/C in the hangars leaving room so the aircraft wouldn't hit each other if there was an earthquake.
The big fear was an aircraft elevated on jacks when a big earthquake hit.
I left Calif in 95 for PA here on the east coast and thought I had left those concerns way behind on the other side of the country.
I was wrong. Today while working on the brakes and under the Spitfire the familiar sounds and shaking began. Of course the Spit is elevated on jacks, one tire off, one on.
In terms of my Calif experience being a few hundred miles from a 5.9 is a world away from a few real earthquakes I went through in So Cal but it got my attention.
But for us No harm in the hangar and all the a/c are ok.

ZRX61 · **Joined:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:16 am **Posts:** 2308

One thing I did notice on the news coverage was all the people who evacuated from the tall buildings all stood around on the sidewalks out front yakking away on their cellphones seemingly oblivious to the likely outcome of falling glass during an aftershock.... :shock:

6trn4brn · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:00 am

I noticed the same thing on the newsies also ZRX! Had felt many tremors while in Anchorage many years ago. Certainly was strange to feel one here...had no idea at all what was going on. Epi-center was about 100 miles north of here (Lynchburg). Very little damage around here. Appears that hurricane Irene will be much more of a concern!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming :roll:

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:50 am

What about all the aircraft suspended on cables at the Smithsonian? Guess we would have heard by now if there was any damage, but it would be interesting to see the security camera video with all of them swaying...

Chappie · **Joined:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:40 am **Posts:** 987

We felt it in Delaware. First time for me and it was amazing, where I live they said it was about a 1.2. I was sitting at my desk when my chair started to roll, I hear the rumble, lights started shaking, chair rolled the other way. It lasted about 10-15 seconds and after about 5 seconds the intensity picked up a little for anothe 5 seconds, and then finally faded.

Once it was over I walked over to the HR department where we asked each other "Did you feel that?" The plant sits right next to a RR track and my office is about 30 feet away so at first I just thought it was a train but then I thought "Naw, the ground does not ripple under my feet when a train goes by."

I was able to send my wife a text to see if she was okay before the cell network became saturated. It was small by west coast standards but it really was incredible to feel the earth move. A lot of people said it made them fell dizzy, me included.

Chappie

Vagabond · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:33 am

I was in a rehearsal studio on 42nd street in NYC on the 7th floor and felt the building ripple. Everyone else was busy and didn't notice, but the guy next to me asked if I was making the floor move like that!

VB

The Inspector · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:31 am

We get small 'bumpers' around here all the time, last week we had three 2.5 to 3.5's in one week so on the news it's 'there was a 3.0 quake in the Darrington area overnight, and now let's check on traffic...' contrasted with all the chicken littles of the 'Big time world press' who spent the rest of the day pounding a basically non event flat and switching to 'Bob in the lobby' and this time it was all of them, not just CNN. I also looked @ all the idiots standing around in front of buildings. didn't they learn anything from the last big earthquake in japan about building facades falling off? 'sorry, can't hear you over all the sheep bleating'. :lol:

One ironic casualty was a piece of the old tower cab glass from SEA that shattered during our Nisqually quake of 10 years ago and was sent to the FAA offices in D.C. it fell off a shelf and broke again.

Mudge · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:47 am

Never felt anything like that before. Half the neighborhood was outside looking around. Thought maybe one one the C-17s from the WVANG at MRB had gone in. MRB is only 5 miles from me.
Lady across the street asked if that was an earthquake. I said, "Either that or the economy has finally hit bottom." (Hope that's not considered political. :wink:

)
Mrs. Mudge's school, and all the schools in Loudoun County, closed. No students yet, so no biggie. She said nothing fell off the walls but she could hear the metal roof flexing.
The news said all the cell phone towers were maxed out. :lol:

My big Aussie Shepherd ran to his "security chair". He's a wuss.

My 13" Beagle just picked her head up, looked around and went back to sleep. :lol:

Mudge the unafraid :hide:

Russ Blow · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:01 pm

We are not geared towards earthquakes here. The reason most evacuated the buildings was because they assumed it was a bomb going off, a plane hitting their building or some other form of terrorist attack. I was in my EMS communications center when it hit and my first thought was that we might have been nuked. It is not far fetched living in one of the largest military complexes in the world and as we have always been told a prime target. It just did not cross my mind to start that we had an earth quake. As our units started calling it in though it became clear pretty quickly what had happened.

Nathan · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:17 pm

Nothing shook in my apartment. But sure felt the vibration and it made me feel sick. Felt like I was on a ship rocking back and forth or just getting drunk. But nothing at all in the house made a noise. Just felt the shacking and my wife asked me what it was. I instantly said earthquake! My first one. Never felt anything like it. Oddest feeling ever.

lmritger · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:32 pm

I work from home on the second floor of our old (ca. 1915) house here in Newport News, and it shakes when trucks go by. Just as it started, a truck passed and I chalked it up to the truck... then it continued to build until all my books, models, computer screens, etc were all swaying back and forth while I stood in the middle of the floor riding it out as though I was on the boat. As it subsided, I immediately went to the USGS site to get the details on it.

That was a seriously uncomfortable feeling and I would be perfectly ok with not repeating it.

Lynn

The Inspector · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:54 pm

Take this from a West Coaster, next time (you never know about aftershocks) DO NOT go outside!!! Stay in the house unless it's caving in on you. Get under a desk, table or stand in a doorway arch. If you go outside particularly in an area where buildings were never designed with earthquakes in mind, the fronts of masonry buildings particularly really old ones have a tendency to surrender to gravity not my idea of playing 'catch', in the Seattle area our 2001 Nisqually quake @ 8.9 collapsed a fair number of 100 year old masonry buildings and sped up the cities push to have historic buildings quake proofed. :shock:

Set up an out of state contact for everyone in the family to check in with like Aunt Millie in Indiana so you don't clog the local phone equipment. Something no one ever thinks about to help phone service is to go around your office hanging up receivers that have had the handsets jarred loose from the cradle. assemble and keep a 'disaster bag' in your car, energy bars, a blanket or two and bottled water and some Gatoraide type powdered drink mix. :drinkers:

Mudge, your Spaniel did what most pets will do just before an earthquake, they seem to sense it coming and get 'goosey' except your Beagle and my nutty cat who sleeps through the 4th of July stuff.

You might want to load 'The Killers' 'Whole lotta shakin' goin' on' into your ipod. (for our younger friends, that would be Jerry Lee Lewis) :lol:

Mudge · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:00 pm

Inspector, that's an Australian Shepherd. :wink:

Mudge the breeder

(That doesn't sound right.)

The Inspector · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:20 pm

Sorry, the last dog I had was a Siberian Husky and that dog was smarter and sharper than 99% of the people I've ever known, I'm more of a cat type person now that's it's just me and I get older, but she's about half Siamese and some Himalayan so not a dummy either.
And whatever you do on your own time is none of my business :wink:

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Earthquake in Virginia - all ok?

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