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. Mindy

    Marcellis and Utica shale..thanks Cheney

    August 23, 2011 at 5:12 pm | Report abuse |
  2. USGS BREAKING NEWS

    A water pipe burst in The Pentagon, flooding two corridors. The quake damaged a buttress on Washington National Cathedral. At National Airport, ceiling tiles fell to the ground and flights halted. Washington Metro trains were delayed and run at reduced speeds.

    August 23, 2011 at 5:13 pm | Report abuse |
  3. nish

    Almost felt it in Poland. My boyfriend is in Va and I can't reach him!!

    August 23, 2011 at 5:13 pm | Report abuse |
  4. alt_bob

    Why mention a nuclear plant shut down – only to scare the ignorant more and gain circulation for useless information. Thanks to CNN and others "the-sky-is-falling" stories such as this we are not energy independent. Hell, thanks to this stuff the plants shut down if someone sneezes loudly inside a plant, I imagine. I do wish for some real "reporters" to emerge on some news media again. CNN can't seem to find any.

    August 23, 2011 at 5:13 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Linda

    Felt it in Kannapolis NC – near Charlotte and have spoken with someone who said it was stronger on the coast of NC

    August 23, 2011 at 5:14 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Amanda

    They just said on CNN that we wont know if this is a foreshock until a bigger one happens, but that typically a foreshock happens an hour or so before a larger shake. But, what about Colorado? They had a foreshock that happened many hours before the bigger 5.3 earthquake they experianced early this morning. Not saying that I want a bigger quake to happen, but I do wonder if this is just the beginning of something more.

    August 23, 2011 at 5:14 pm | Report abuse |
    • USGS BREAKING NEWS

      Agree, but earthquakes have no consistency at all, foreshocks or aftershocks can happen bigger or smaller, there's just no way in predicting how they will strike.

      August 23, 2011 at 5:20 pm | Report abuse |
  7. SAIFULLAH SIDDIQUI

    THIS IS FROM CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA, TOADAY AT ABOUT2 PM,I WAS SITTNG ON THE KITCHEN TABLE WITH MY LAAPTOP. MY WIFE WAS BUSY WITH SOME THING, THAT I FELT A JOLT. I YELED AT MY WIFE HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING. SHE SAID NOTHING. I SAID TO HER, YOU SHOOKED THE TABLE. SHE SAID NO,NO. I DID NO SHAKING.

    MINUTES LATTER WE RECEIVED A CALL FROM OUR SON AT WORK THAT IT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE-5.9.
    THEN WE WERE SHAKED-UP AND PRAYED TO GOD TO FORBID AND FORGIVE US THE SINNERS AND UNLOYALISTS TO YOU. SO O KIND GOD FORGIVE YOUR CREATION, DIVERT US TO YOURSELF. AND
    GIVE US SAFETY FROM THE CALAMITIES OF EVERY SORTS............THE EARTHQUAKES,THE SUNAMIES, THE CALIFORNIA FIRES AND THE LIKES.

    August 23, 2011 at 5:15 pm | Report abuse |
  8. HermanPerry

    yeah here in south meriden ct too!@Guest, I paid $ 27,98 for an iPad2-(64GB) and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $ 37,59 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. x I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $ 652 which only cost me $ 73,45 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, BidsOut.com

    August 23, 2011 at 5:15 pm | Report abuse |
  9. SAIFULLAH SIDDIQUI

    WHERE IS MY COMMENTS

    August 23, 2011 at 5:16 pm | Report abuse |
  10. Ginger

    The epicenter was in Mineral, that's Min-er-ALL, for those of you who respect regional pronunciation.

    August 23, 2011 at 5:16 pm | Report abuse |
  11. midwest

    I think the bigger story is that there were TWO significant earthquakes in the US on the same day, more than half a continent apart.

    August 23, 2011 at 5:17 pm | Report abuse |
    • USGS BREAKING NEWS

      Exactly.

      August 23, 2011 at 5:24 pm | Report abuse |
  12. Nannie

    Being a former Californian, I have lived through many earthquakes. 5.8 isn't small. You want to know what to expect for damage, look at:
    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1987_10_01.php
    My husband was a block from this Whittier Narrows 5.9 earthquake when it occurred. The ceiling of his office fell down. Also, several buildings in the immediate area were condemned.

    August 23, 2011 at 5:17 pm | Report abuse |
    • USGS BREAKING NEWS

      Yes, an earthquake destructive or not destructive actually depends on DEPTH.

      August 23, 2011 at 5:26 pm | Report abuse |
  13. Kim

    Felt it in Greenville, NC

    August 23, 2011 at 5:19 pm | Report abuse |
  14. Fernando

    He should be OK. I live in Ashburn VA (I'm between DC and Mineral, VA) and nothing mayor happened here. 🙂

    August 23, 2011 at 5:20 pm | Report abuse |
  15. all shook up

    I think it’s very arrogant and irresponsible of the media to report (so early) that the Colorado earthquake is NOT related to the DC earthquake. Since there were very little destruction and people as far as Chicago reporting they also felt the 5.9 DC quake wouldn’t this indicate the quake was very, very deep?
    For every action there is a reaction – Isaac Newton

    August 23, 2011 at 5:23 pm | Report abuse |
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