August 23rd, 2011
04:06 PM ET

Earthquake shuts down Virginia nuclear plant

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 struck Tuesday afternoon near Washington, D.C., the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia. The quake was four miles deep, according to the USGS. Did you feel it? Send CNN an iReport.

To get complete coverage and all the latest updates, click on CNN's main story here. View a CNN Open Story about the quake. CNN Open Story combines iReports with reports from CNNers across the globe on a map and timeline.

Update 3:36 p.m. ET: Terminal A at Washington Reagan National Airport has been evacuated because of an odor of gas, airport spokeswoman Courtney Mickalonis said. Initial sweeps of the building showed no major damage from the earthquake.

Light structural damage has been reported in Culpepper and Orange counties in Virginia, said Laura Southard of the state Emergency Operations Center. She said there have been no reports of injuries in Virginia.

Update 3:28 p.m. ET: The White House and adjacent buildings evacuated as a precaution following the earthquake have been given the all-clear, the U.S. Secret Service said. The FBI and Justice Department have also reopened evacuated buildings.

Update 3:25 p.m. ET: East Coast residents should be prepared to feel aftershocks from Tuesday's earthquake, a U.S. Geological Survey official said.

Update 3:22 p.m. ET: The North Anna nuclear power plant, located 20 miles from the epicenter, is shut down and in a safe condition, a company official and the Louisa County public information office report. There has been no release of nuclear material, Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach said.

Update 3:04 p.m. ET: All national monuments and parks in Washington are "stable but closed" following Tuesday's earthquake, a United States Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser said. A couple of minor injuries and some minor structural damage have been reported in Washington, following Tuesday's earthquake, according to Schlosser.

Part of the central tower of the National Cathedral, the highest point in Washington, was damaged, according to spokesman Richard Weinberg. "It looks like three of the pinnacles have broken off the central tower," Weinberg told CNN.

Update 3:02 p.m. ET: Amtrak is reporting service disruptions between Washington and Baltimore because of the earthquake, the company reported on Twitter.

Aftershocks are a concern, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones told CNN. "People should be expecting (them), especially over the next hour or two," she said.

The quake was felt in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where President Barack Obama is vacationing. It's unknown if the president felt the quake.

The Pentagon has been evacuated, CNN's Barbara Starr reports. "When the building began shaking rather violently, hundreds of people began streaming out," she said, because many people thought that the building was under attack. Starr was standing in the Pentagon's press office when the roof started to shake.

Cell phone service has been disrupted in New York City, CNN learned within minutes of the quake.

Updated 2:47 p.m. ET: A "considerable amount" of water from a water pipe has flooded two corridors of the Pentagon, according to an announcement in the building. People who work in those areas are being asked to stay in their offices while workers try to repair the damage.

The National Cathedral in Washington is damaged, CNN has confirmed.

And Dominion Generation, which operates the North Anna nuclear power station in central Virginia a few miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, is trying to reach operational staff at the plant, according to a company spokesman. Landlines to the plant appear to be down.

Shortly after the quake struck, traders in the New York Stock Exchange also felt the quake and shouted to each other, "Keep trading!" CNN's business correspondent Alison Kosik reported from the floor at 2:20 p.m. E.T.

Twitter traffic suggests the quake was felt all over the East Coast.

In Philadelphia, HunterPence3 tweeted, "Wow Earthquake just shook the entire locker room!"

In Cleveland, "tribeinsider" wrote "I'm no expert but i think we just had an earthquake here."

And even in Toronto, Canada, tweets said that the shaking could be felt for minutes.

Pete Krech, who works at a business in Fredericksburg, Virginia, likened the sensation to being on a jolting amusement ride. "I was receiving a supply truck," said Krech, store manager at Mattress Warehouse of Fredericksburg, south of Washington. "I felt a vibration under my feet."

Brendan Wein, a sales representative at Hoffman Nursery in Roxboro, North Carolina, said he thought there was a helicopter flying above his work building.  "I was literally shaking in my chair," he said.

CNN iReporter Jeff Yapalater said he was in his backyard in New York's Long Island when the earthquake hit. "Suddenly I felt this light swaying of the Earth. I'd never felt that before, so I thought maybe I was experiencing vertigo for a moment, and it lasted maybe 30 seconds ... We're feeling this really far away!" he wrote.

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Filed under: District of Columbia • Earthquake • Natural Disasters • Virginia
soundoff (12,567 Responses)
  1. Nicki40

    Felt the earthquake in Lebanon Pa. Thought my building was shaking from the trucks that drive down my street, but soon reazized it must be an earthquake. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was scary.

    August 23, 2011 at 4:30 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Hoo

    The sidewalk I was walking on in Charlottesville, VA at the time felt like I was walking on jello.

    August 23, 2011 at 4:31 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Boston Guy

    Most of the business on my street evacuated due to the swaying. Light fixtures were also swaying. Would couldn't believe what we were experiencing.

    August 23, 2011 at 4:31 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Gabriella

    We felt it in South Glens Falls, Ny.

    August 23, 2011 at 4:31 pm | Report abuse |
  5. J.Johnson

    I'm glad no one was hurt. Thank God. I would offer more words of comfort but I live in Florida, and we have a possible hurricane coming up our ass! Thats for my NY brethen. My Virginia brethen's butt cheeks may tighten as well. Just Mother Earth letting us all know whose Queen of this rock!

    August 23, 2011 at 4:31 pm | Report abuse |
  6. HnG in ri

    In mystic ct sitting on a stone wall felt it swaying for about 40 seconds and tabls rocking. Several others felt it too!

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
  7. love

    wow– how pathetic that these, some of the superposed richest most powerful people in the world- when faced with the unknowable force are willing to risk their last breath for another dollar- in my last breath will be a flood of love, a river of passion, purpose, potential light and energy dancing with eternity... now & always. learn your value– i have done new york 18 hour days 7 days a week til i almost allowed my ego to turn me into one of these fools... Yet we have choose– we can walk away– place value on deeper riches– fine treasures which can never be pillaged... even if we lay in a thousand pieces we can never be broken... unbreakable sur.realism– ESCAPE– the RAT race...*

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
    • love

      in response to: Shortly after the quake struck, traders in the New York Stock Exchange also felt the quake and shouted to each other, "Keep trading!" CNN's business correspondent Alison Kosik reported from the floor at 2:20 p.m. E.T.

      August 23, 2011 at 4:33 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Diane Brown

    Felt entire branch of my library tremor in New Haven, CT

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
  9. John

    This was only a 5.9? I call B.S. that people in up in Cleveland were able to feel a 5.9 quake, with an epicenter in Virginia. The 1987 quake we had in Whittier was the same size, but was not felt hundreds of miles away. Let's not blow this out of proportion. If it was felt in Cleveland, then they were wrong about the size.

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
    • Anne

      Finally someone with some common sense. People saying they felt it the instant it happened 1000 miles away are making it up just to feel important. Earthquakes don't work that way.

      August 23, 2011 at 4:35 pm | Report abuse |
    • ಠ_ಠ

      In fact, earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. can have far greater effects than their western equivalents. Western rock is fairly young, which means it absorbs a lot of the shaking caused by earthquakes. Thus, western earthquakes result in intense shaking close to the epicenter, but fade quickly the farther they travel.

      Not so in the central and eastern United States.

      The result—large earthquakes in the central and eastern states can travel nearly half the distance of the continental United States.

      http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2767

      August 23, 2011 at 4:35 pm | Report abuse |
  10. Cnote

    Missoula MT did NOT feel it....just sayin

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
  11. Nia

    FELT IT IN NEWARK, NJ!!!

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
  12. Rocking in the Panhandle

    Felt it in Jefferson County, WV it lasted about 25 seconds.

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
  13. Rick Perry

    I feel it deep in the heart of texas!

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
  14. crankyg

    Felt it here in the North East corner of Bergen County NJ.. my dogs and bird were freaking out prior to the quake. Shower doors,picture frames rattling. My couch ( with me on it) started shaking and moving across the floor. I thought I was having an out of body Linda Blair experience, but no spitting of pea soup!

    August 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Report abuse |
  15. Michael B.

    I thought I was back in California! I made a tee shirt to mark the occasion:
    http://www.cafepress.com/CurrentEventsDC

    August 23, 2011 at 4:33 pm | Report abuse |
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