When you think of earthquakes you usually think of the western coast of California, right? But the east coast???
A powerful 5.8 earthquake shattered windows and rattled nerves along the eastern seaboard yesterday at around 1:51pm EDT. The epicenter was about 4 miles southwest of Mineral, Va., near Richmond, and about 80 miles south of Washington, D.C. The unusually rare east coast quake was felt from North Carolina to as far north as Ottawa, Canada.
The earthquake was one of the largest ever recorded in the Washington, D.C., area. “In the East Coast you have this old, hard, cold crust that does a lovely job of transmitting the waves … the energy … this large of an earthquake could definitely have been felt hundreds of miles away,” said USGS seismologist Lucy Jones. “Central Virginia does get its share of minor earthquakes, but an earthquake of this size on the East Coast is certainly very unusual,” added seismologist Karen Fischer of Brown University.
No injuries were reported after the quake, but plenty of nerves were on end. Experts warned residents to prepare for after-shocks over the next several days — some which could be just as, if not more powerful than the original.
The initial thought of most in the DC area was that the earth shattering rumble was a terrorist attack of some sort. In reaction and almost within an instant, cell phone service went out, rail and subway service came to a halt and traffic on nearby highways morphed into a jam-packed parking lot. While reporting the breaking news, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer made an eerie point: the total collapse of communication and transit almost immediately following the quake, is proof that the east coast is extremely unprepared for most any catastrophe. And sadly, he’s right!
East coast residents are completely untrained in what to do in the event of an earthquake. And their initial thought to make phone calls to check on loved ones was the worst thing to do, since it only clogged up cell phone towers and made them unusable. Perhaps it’s time for the Dept. of Homeland Security and other government agencies to step up and school east coast residents in the art of survival during a natural disaster.
