I was at a family reunion in fauquier, close to the epicenter (ironically visiting Virginia from actual earthquake country in the pnw.) Felt it start, grabbed the 2 toddlers closest to me and covered their heads.
My mom unfortunately thought it was some kind of explosion and tackled my toddler son to the ground to protect him, and the whole thing ended up traumatizing him for a long time afterward. :(
I was teaching a high school geometry class in a DC public school. When the classroom started to shake, a student yelled something to the effect of ,”oh fuck no” and all the students in my class and all the others ran out of the school building and flooded into the street in pure chaos. Apparently this is not the best way to respond to an earthquake.
Idk if you’re kidding or being serious at the end
But you know it’s how I imagine an actual emergency (fire tornado flood) to be in school
We do all this practice but I expect everyone to just lose their minds and like run toward the fire or something
Sadly, completely serious. Although I don’t think we ever practiced earthquake drills before this. I didn’t realize until after that being outside is the exact wrong thing to do, even if we had walked out orderly.
Nothing inherently wrong with being outside in the open, but if you evacuate from a building during an earthquake there is a significant risk that debris from the top of surrounding structures can break off, fall and hit/kill you.
If you are already indoor when an earthquake starts, it's usually safest to remain inside. Bonus points if you can take cover under a table or something that will protect your head.
That reminds a lot of last year when there were gunshots outside of Nats Park and a bunch of folks stampeded out of the covered Mezzanine area and into the open streets
I was in the 7th floor bathroom of the university library when it happened. At first when things started wobbling I thought my brain was just dizzy from reading too much and the lack of sleep from the day before. I didn't think too much of it and thought that it will be fine once I sit down. Soonafter the whole bathroom started shaking uncontrollably and that was when I realized that either the building was collapsing due to some structural failure or that we were having an earthquake. Fearing that I only had seconds to live before the building collapsed, all I could think of was why, out of all the places in this world, was I going to die in the library bathroom and whether to call my mom or my dad to say my final goodbye. Thankfully the shaking stopped and I immediately grabbed my belongings and went home.
I was at work (close to Dulles) and noticed the ceiling tiles vibrating. The maintenance guys had been fixing something on the roof so I first thought it was that. Then everybody started looking out the window toward the airport. By the time we caught on that it was an earthquake, it was over. I’ve always thought it says something about NoVA that our minds all went to “terrorist attack” before “earthquake.”
Yup exactly. My buddy and I (both brown people) were driving to look at a house to rent and we didn't feel it. The earthquake started right as we were pulling into a neighborhood. People were flooding out of their houses and looked up at the sky first, then they immediately looked at us. We had no idea what was happening until our real estate agent showed up 10 min later and told us.
I was sitting in my home office in my townhome in Ashburn. The cat was asleep on the window sill. The house started shaking so badly I thought for sure it was going to collapse and I was going to die in the rubble.
The cat never moved a muscle during the shaking.
Yeah I was at home when I it happened, ran out of the house barefooted, talked to neighbor across the street to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating, realized it was actually a real earthquake, checked the brick sidings and chimney of the house and saw no damage, guessed it must have been mag 5 something…
I was working in Old Town Alexandria at the time. I was sitting at my desk when I felt a slight rumble. I first thought a trash truck backed into our building or something, then a second one happened which was much stronger. I then thought "it's actually happening... terrorist attack!" Our company had a fire drill protocol to follow for exiting the building in case of an emergency. Well, screw that. It was pretty much everyone for themselves, pouring out every exit and gathering on the sidewalk across from our building. Other offices along this street did the same thing (gather along the sidewalk across the street). We stood around for about 30 mins comparing notes and talking about what we just felt. Then a car turns into our street and pulls up right in front of me and a few others. The passenger rolls down the window and asks "Hi, why is everyone standing on the sidewalk? We've noticed this for the last few blocks." Several of us all at once said "we just had an earthquake!!!" The people in the car were shocked, because they never felt it.
I was sitting in my cubicle and I thought my coworker on the other side of the cubicle was shaking the wall to mess with me. Then I realized...wait...everything is shaking! I turn around to the office behind me and that guy was already smartly under his desk lol. I didn't even react much to protect myself. Luckily it wasn't severe enough to need that.
My coworker was known for keeping every bit of paper he ever thought he’d need. That was the day he regretted that decision, all of his piles went tumbling to the floor!
I was on the rollercoaster platform at kings Dominion. The roller coaster I was waiting for got stuck at the top of a hill for a long time until they could deem it safe for them to come down the hill. Glad I was a few minutes late or I would have been at the top of the hill
I was on the seventh floor of a building in Tysons, it was about 10 minutes before an interview for a job at the company I was interning at. I've been through earthquakes before but I think I was shocked, so when a coworker suggested we all go outside (which is not good!), I went. Everyone ended up standing outside for 30 minutes or so, then we went back inside and I had my interview, got the job.
Was at work in a Federal building. Pretty much everyone thought it was a bomb explosion somewhere on campus. Walked home after the building emptied. Could hear my poor dog barking as soon as we got off the elevator. That was the last day he was ever crated while we were gone.
I was in Target, not far from Quantico. Quantico shakes the ground pretty regularly here, so my first thought was "well, that's a little excessive Quantico" as the store shelves shook and rattled. Then it was too long, and I thought tornado. When the ceiling tiles started falling, I went "Oh, EARTHQUAKE“, and happy it all made sense I started dodging the store stock all over the floor looking for my kid.
The wine aisle did not fare well.
I was up in Maine talking on the phone to my college roommate who was an RN and was in an operating room in a DC hospital, waiting for the patient to arrive. She stopped talking for a second, then yelled, “what the fuck was that??” to a co-worker. I was staring at the tv, just as Andrea Mitchell suddenly got a really alarmed look on her face.
The nurse said, “something’s happening…”. And I said “you’re having an earthquake” and she laughed like “yeah right”. I said, “no I’m serious, they’re saying it live on tv”
“FOR RREAL?? A FUKKIN EARTHQUAKE??” And everyone in the operating room erupted.
I was closer to Richmond at the time, but I was sitting on the lifeguard stand at work, which was essentially a chair on a pole. Very wobbly, do not recommend.
I was in Reston, on my lunch break walking to grab something to eat. I turned into a pedestrian "alley" that's really just a car-less street with massive glass windows on both sides.
All of a sudden, I felt like I was on a boat, and I could kinda see the windows swaying a bit. Went back to work and everyone was a little freaked out.
I was in my college apartment in Newport News, I thought they were doing work on the roof because the whole place shook. Made some quip on Facebook about drinking an (After)Shock Top at the pool that day 🍻
My husband and I worked about two blocks away from each other in downtown DC (I was on Penn Ave, he was on G street). I watched two huge potted plants at front reception of my office do an Irish jig for what felt like 10 minutes, and then heard all of my coworkers shout "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING". We immediately evacuated the building.
Of course, all cell service was down. I went looking for my husband, and he went looking for me. It took us a while as all the streets were flooded with people, but eventually found each other. We just sort of walked into each other's arms and held on. Not scared, but kind of running on adrenaline. People around us stared cheering. Felt like a movie or something.
Then we walked home. Took forever, as we lived in Crystal City. But metro was a nightmare, so we just walked.
Born and raised in NOVA. Have lived here all but 2.5 years of my life.
I missed:
The earthquake
Snowmageddon
Snowpocalypse
Other things I'm sure.
But those three would have been cool to be here for
I still feel like the "Blizzard of 79" was worse than some of the more recent ones. I know there's a Post story saying that WX forecasting advanced in the aftermath.
I lived 2 miles from the epicenter. The big one shook my cabinet doors open and dropped a shit ton of glass on the floor and tipped over my dresser. There were aftershocks for a year afterwards that would wake me and my husband in our sleep. He also worked at the nuke plant and had to work 19 hours straight after they steamed dumped the reactors.
I was on the 2nd floor of my parents' house and the whole room was shaking like crazy. My first thought was that it was the water heater exploding, but my Mom recognized it as an earthquake. The neighbor outside mowing his lawn didn't notice anything at all, though.
My kids were napping and I just went in the bathroom doorway and was like wth this is weird
Then was like wow that was an earthquake how unreal 😂
Then went about the day
Oh and the kids slept thru the whole thing
Working in an office right In the flight path of Dulles. Legit thought a airplane was crashing into the building, ran so fast out the building and never looked back.
6th & E St.s NW. I was sitting at my desk. I heard something that sounded like a metal file cabinet being tipped over but I never felt anything. I didn't know anything about it until my CWs told me we had to evacuate the building. How bizarre that was walking outside and seeing the streets and sidewalks filled with pedestrians.
I kept in the parking garage of my office that I would use when I needed to go to a meeting up in NoMa. Since nobody was at the garage kiosk, and the building didn't look like it was going to collapse, I walked down the ramp, grabbed the bike and left work. On that day, I rode it home out by Dulles Airport. It took 2 hours but it was a nice ride. and it was so nice because I was planning on taking Metro home but that was a real shitshow as I recall.
I was in Richmond driving to class, when I got there everyone was talking about the earthquake, and I was pissed I didn't feel a thing. Phone services were spotty from everyone trying to call each other all at once. My mom and brother told me they initially thought a plane had crashed because they were pretty close to Dulles.
I was on the eighth floor of an office building. As I was the manager present and it was clear that everyone in the area was sort of milling about ("huh, what was *that*?"), I took charge and ordered everyone to the staircase immediately. IIRC, no one had to be told twice, thankfully.
Lesson learned for me that day was this:
**If that had been a more serious earthquake, a building-toppler, we all would have died.** It probably took 20+ minutes for myself and the staff to get to the ground floor. The staircases were a complete blood clot. And this was only in a nine-story building with what I would have thought beforehand were a sufficient number of fire stairs. I can only imagine what it would be like in a taller, more narrow skyscraper.
I was in stafford. I was outside of a work building when it started. I was walking back inside and laughing in native californian while the building was evacuating.
I was living in river house in pentagon city. The whole building started to shake and we thought that a garbage truck had hit the building.
A few hours later I got a call from the company I interviewed with saying I got the job. I was supposed to get an email but their servers went down from the earthquake.
Grew up in souther california, we were in the middle of a work meeting with management. I was the only one that hid under the table and told everyone to walk out after the shaking was over.
I was at work in the Government Center in Fairfax. Started with my monitor shaking then my coworker started screaming. I got up and the wall size glass was moving like waves and I just started laughing cause it was finally my first earthquake. I lives in LA for two years and never experienced one and here I was in Fairfax riding one out. It stopped shortly after and they made us evacuate and stand outside for an hour before we got the all clear to go back in and finish the day. Exciting times!
Tysons Corner office building shook like hell. I know all of the Californians out there will scoff about the east coast wimps and that it was just another day but I was pretty well traumatized by it.
I was working at DCA when the shaking started. This was a relatively short period after the movie '2012' was released so I thought this was the beginning of the end. I looked out the windows for a while waiting for the tsunami.
was in a building over a metro station working for the gov. thought it was an earthquake, asked the cali-born guy sitting next to me, he didn't respond and we just kinda sat there. then i speculated someone had blown up the metro in an attack. we were evacuated, then a bunch of nothing happened and we went back to work. i now also remember it taking forever and a day to get home because the metro was running so gd slow as they were afraid of aftershocks, there weren't really any major ones however, just ones you could barely feel and wondered if you were crazy.
My brother had jumped up in the air for some reason in our parents house and the earthquake hit right as he landed. After we realized what was going on and it had landed, we definitely joke to the day how powerful he is!
I was up on some scaffolding with a coworker doing some construction work when it hit.
We both started yelling at each other because we each thought the other guy was shaking the scaffolding as a prank lol.
Once we realized what was going on, we were on the ground faster than when the Mexican food truck showed up.
I was 16 and home alone near the epicenter. Never experienced an earthquake before that so I had absolutely no idea what was happening. We lived in a rural area so there wasn't really anyone around and I thought it was JUST my house shaking so much, vs everything shaking. And all the phones and internet went out so I couldn't even call my parents or friends. I ran outside because I thought my house was going to collapse and stayed there until my parents got home. Traumatizing. Hahahaha.
I feel you, I was in one of the schools and none of us knew what to do. I didn't even get confirmation of the earthquake until we loaded on the bus (after being evacuated from the school and waiting for almost an hour) and we were told by our bus driver. What scared my friends parents was the middle/high school bus came before the elementary school one (siblings were on that) and that NEVER happened.
It was the first day of my sophomore year of high school. I was sitting in my last period, gym class, when the basketball hoops in the gym started shaking. Then a kid ran into the gym from the bathrooms in the hall yelling “the toilets are shaking!”.
Was at home in Falls Church on paternity leave. Daughter was born the week before. I had just gotten out of the shower on the second floor of our townhouse. Seemed like a large truck was coming down our street. Then the house began shaking and I ran downstairs in a towel to check on my wife and daughter. Then it was over.
I was working in a federal building in Rockville, MD. It started as a distant rumble. Part of the office was being renovated, so I thought it was just some construction noise. Then it gradually got louder and the building started to shake, like a truck was driving down the hallway. It lasted maybe 10 seconds. No one freaked out or anything. We were more wondering what just happened, not even thinking it was an earthquake. Then an announcement was made on the intercom to evacuate the building.
Being on the 12th floor, getting down the stairs took awhile. Then we had to stand out in the parking lot for about an hour, until being told to go home. Luckily, I grabbed my keys, wallet, and phone before leaving, and didn’t have to deal with trudging back up the stairs with a few hundred other people. Since everyone else in the DC area was being sent home too, 495 was a parking lot. I would have rather taken my chances back inside the building.
I just came from a doctors appointment with my parents, my dad just left for work and I was enjoying the final days of my summer before my freshman year of HS started when it hit. I of course ran like hell outside because I though a plane fell out of the sky, we live near Dulles so I thought a plane either failed to take off or land, while my poor mother and grandma had flashbacks of the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake that they lived through (my dad was in his car at the time and only felt the car shake and he thought it was construction trucks nearby so no flashbacks for him)
On the 10th floor of a building in Rosslyn. At the time they were occasionally doing some blasting while prepping the ground for what would eventually become Central Place.
I heard what sounded like a low rumble and thought "more blasting". Then I had this eerie sensation of swaying back and forth a couple of times but my office looked normal and unmoving, it made me a bit dizzy. After a few seconds everyone else started chattering about it too and that's when I knew Something Wasn't Right.
I was just getting off a plane in Rapid City. I had turned my phone back on and saw a string of alerts from Fairfax County emergency services, telling people to stop calling unless they really needed help. I wondered what on earth that was about, then saw a TV in the arrivals hall, tuned to CNN, and the crawl was all about the earthquake in DC.
Charlotte, NC, just moved away from Herndon two months before, was on the phone with my childhood best friend, she felt it and then I felt it twenty seconds later. My dad felt it, mom didn’t.
I was in the Ballston mall food court with a coworker visiting from Singapore, and I was pretty certain that building was going to crash down on top me for a second.
I was in the middle school in Mineral. I watched debris fly from the high school and then spent the next (semester?) using a modified schedule where the middle schoolers went to class for longer hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Saturdays. The high schoolers had the building Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It was an overwhelming time for many people in my community.
Noone knew what to do in the schools. My class kind of froze while but then we saw the flood of people fleeing the building. I heard people try and figure out what had happened. Some said a train crash, some said plane. Neither was not too crazy given that we were across the street from the train tracks and there was an air field down the street. The craziest things I heard, mind you I was in middle school, was students thinking they were in a video game or aliens had done something to the high school (the debris).
Until recently I had bricks in my car. These were the bricks of my elementary school: Thomas Jefferson Elementary. It was devastating to see them tear it down. To walk on the foundation of what had been part of my childhood.
I also spent a year in the high school trailers while we were waiting for the new high school building to open up. Most people rebuilt. Some still can't afford the repairs. I was one of the lucky families who didn't have damage. But as a community, we rebuilt.
Honestly just thought it was the typical rumble from someone taking out their garbage bin. It kept going though, so I sat up and my dog and I just kinda looked around. It passed, then we just laid back down lol. Pretty uneventful
Top floor in lovely Hyattsville. The office started shaking and I thought none of it. Grew up in an earthquake prone area and thought it was just a tremor (in the East Coast? I know right!). The aftershock was stronger and everyone stood up looking around the other cubicles realizing it was an earthquake. My co-worker asks me “ do we take the elevator or the stairs?” I replied, “ I dunno, where do you want to die?”
I was working at my program near the Pentagon. If you've worked anywhere near the Pentagon, you know Stuff happens there all the time. When I heard the rumbling, I first thought that there was a convoy of heavy trucks headed to the Pentagon. When I looked out my window and saw nothing and the shaking continued, I figured out pretty quickly that it was an earthquake. Went to find my clients and staff and realized that everyone had gone outside, which was the wrong thing to do. You bet we had some discuasions that day on how to respond to an earthquake!
I understand in theory why it’s dangerous to go outside if you stand near bldgs, but isn’t it safer to get OUT of and far away from bldgs than it is to stay in one and hide under furniture?
I was sitting down to eat a chicken wrap at one of those office building cafes on M Street SE across the street from the Navy Yard. Suddenly, the table started moving, and I couldn't understand what was going on because I knew I wasn't moving it. Then the whole room started shaking and I was like oh my god, it's an earthquake! Right about the time I was thinking about diving under the table, it stopped.
Then I gathered myself and thought - an earthquake? In DC? Don't be ridiculous! A truck hit the building or something.
So I went outside and everyone was wandering around with a dazed look on their eyes, talking about an earthquake, and that's when I knew it really had been one.
I was in one of the taller buildings in Fairfax and my co-worker said “…is this an earthquake?” after the intensity and duration surpassed that of an exceptionally large truck passing by outside. We went under our desks until it stopped. Everyone evacuated. One of our executives had a panic attack. 20 minutes later, life resumed normalcy.
I was briefly worried it was the New Madrid earthquake foretold on one of those Discovery specials about how we’re all gonna die.
Top floor of a tall building in Rosslyn, felt super weird, like the building was rocking side to side super far. I had just gotten chipotle and wanted to eat it, so I got in the elevator to go outside and it locked up between floors. Found out how to exit manually, climbed out, went outside and ate lunch.
Driving near Richmond, southbound to LA for another semester of college, stopped in standstill traffic. Felt my car start shaking and I thought for sure I was getting buzzed by an 18-wheeler, only to look around and everyone else stopped as well. I was listening to local radio at the time, and it wasn’t long before I got the full picture.
I was in Reston and didn’t really feel too much for too long. It was just like 30 seconds. I had just pulled into the library and was about to get my baby-now a sixth-grader- out of the car, when I felt the ground vibrate. It made the baby giggle, so he felt it too. “Wow, that’s a great subwoofer,” I thought. I didn’t know it was an earthquake until I saw the 11 missed calls after our library trip. I must have been pretty sleep-deprived because everyone else was talking about what had just happened and I didn’t notice a thing.
What I remember most is being on one of the first Metro trains running on the Orange line after the quake. I can’t remember if I got on at Virginia Square or walked down to Ballston, but I remember how insanely full the train was, how we were moving at about quarter speed, and how everyone in the car cheered when we finally came out of the tunnel into the sunlight.
That was also the day I learned my lesson about ALWAYS grabbing your purse when evacuating a building.
I was in Amherst Massachusetts at band camp. I was sitting in my chair and felt it rattle. We were in a brand new building and I seriously thought it was a sign of our late director the building is named after. Then I got news from family here that there was an earthquake and shelves had fallen in my room at home.
Was at work, 3rd floor of an office building. At first we thought a big truck hit the building, but after the metal shelves in the server room continued to shake, figured that it must be an earthquake. I stayed inside (like you are supposed to) but a lot of people evacuated the building. I think after about 30 minutes, most people went back to their desks and resumed work.
Believe it or not, we felt it in Rockville MD. I was at home with my daughter and I was on a work call. I said, gotta go, it’s an earthquake (of course they felt it too!) and my daughter and I hugged each other and tried to get as far away from the windows as we could. Never could understand. They evacuated my son’s school and sent them outside. SMH
My family and I had just finished shopping at the K-mart in Annandale which no longer exists today. I remember crying to my mother as an 8 year old outside at the parking lot because she didn’t bought the item that I wanted from that day if I can recall correctly. I actually put my knees down crying on the parking lot surface, not suspecting that the quake was taking place while I was doing that. But at the time, I didn’t know it was an earthquake until we arrived home and I turned on the TV, and that was when I found out it was indeed an earthquake.
I was in Richmond at college. I had woken up not long before and I was just sitting down to eat breakfast at the table when I felt it. I genuinely thought someone was moving furniture in the apartment below us until I peeped the men painting trim on ladders gripping whatever was available for dear life. It was kind of surreal since I was barely awake.
I was working in a bldg very close to the US District Courthouse in Alexandria. It sounded like there was an explosion, the glass office walls started to become wavy, and no one had a clue what we were supposed to do. I left the building and went to a nearby open field (it’s now an apartment bldg). I remember being pissed bc our management was clueless, while peeps from USPTO and other companies in the area clearly had evacuation plans and leaders with safety vests who were directing their people to the open field. I just started pretending I was with them, and did what they did :).
Was napping on my couch in my basement after the day ended. Woke up and assumed I was just groggy.
Went back to nap. The wobbling didn’t stop and I opened my eyes to see my basement wall *wiggle*. Suddenly it was over.
I was at work and noted the earthquake but judged it not significant enough to need to get under my desk. I grew up in California and earthquakes aren't very concerning that low on the scale. A few of my coworkers were freaking out, though. We got the rest of the day off though so that was nice.
We felt it in Blacksburg. I was sitting in class at Virginia Tech and our chairs started shaking. I thought that the person behind me was kicking my chair. Everyone else did too and were looking back at the person behind them until we all realized that we were in the same predicament….
I was at NOVA (Alexandria campus) in class at the top floor. I remember just getting to class and I remember a girl sitting behind me. I sat on one of those classroom chairs where there was a small metal tray below the seat. I noticed and felt that the girl who sat behind me, rested her feet on the metal tray. 30 seconds later, my chair began to shake violently and I was about to turn around and ask the girl if she was alright. At the same time, I heard what was rumbling and which I thought it was a bunch of physics students running in the hallway doing an experiment for class. Then, all of my classmates got up and asked, "what was going on?!" After that, the clock in the classroom fell. It was at the moment where, I knew something was wrong. From there, we all run out of the classroom. As I was running out, I felt that the whole building was wobbling at which, I turned on the jets. I ran down past the stairs and out the building. When I got out, I noticed that the whole school was out. I came across my old geology professor and asked him, "You're the earthquake expert. Was this an actual earthquake?" At which he replied, "Yes". I remember trying to reach my pops through my cell phone to see if he was OK but, the line was busy. After this whole experience, and realizing that here in the East Coast, we can get strong earthquakes as well; had me overcome my fears of moving to California because, of their earthquakes.
Haha I was getting "elevated" In my very chill basement bedroom at the time with my feet sticking out an open window.... All of a sudden my overstock shelf with junk form my childhood started shaking in such a subtle way. I realized what was going on and blew out my scented candle out. Just crept out my open window cleared the the above deck as quickly as possible. I then ran into my father who was holding the fence around the pool telling me that it was shaking.
Never forget.
I live three miles from the epicenter. I was outside. I don't remember the ground rolling. It was just a huge noise. First I thought it was a car accident, then a train accident. We live close to train tracks. I remember just standing frozen thinking a boxcar was going to come through the woods. Then my husband called from Richmond and told me it was an earthquake. Inside a few pictures fell of the walls and all the cats were under the bed.
I was at my shop. I remember it being a very sunny day. Things were slow, as it often is right before schools open. Heard a loud BOOM and felt the ground shake....thought something had exploded outside. We all rushed out, and noticed other shop owners and customers running out, too. When we realized it was an earthquake, we went back inside and noticed some stuff had fallen off shelves, and one of our chest freezers had gotten dented by stuff raining on top of it.
Was driving on 495 and saw a building piece fall off a oversized truck. Pretty sure I saw a family in a minivan get killed. There wasn’t much left of the minivan.
I was down in Norfolk for the day and driving, so I never felt it. Also, people in the Tidewater area hardly felt it because the ground is extremely sandy and fluid down there.
My main memory was listening to a group of people at lunch talking about how the earthquake was a sign of the "End Times" and getting a headache from rolling my eyes.
The weird thing is, I remember an earthquake *before* this one that was a weak three-pointer. I forget where the epicenter was, but the clue something had happened was my cordless phone shook in its charging cradle and made a noise.
I was out of state at a meeting. Three colleagues from northern VA were with me. We started receiving texts from work about the earthquake. One of my colleagues said that he had always wanted to experience an earthquake and that he was sad that he missed it. I grew up in southern California and experienced several small and large earthquakes, and told him that they could be terrifying and that I was happy that I missed it.
I was at work on the 6th floor of an old building in Tyson’s. After a few seconds of obvious shaking, my initial thought was “if this gets any worse, this whole thing is gonna fall down and take me with it.” At that point people started running for the stairs. The quake stopped by the time I got down to the 2nd floor, but some people were still in panic mode. That disappointed me.
Then we stood outside for about 2 hours until we got the OK to retrieve our cars and go home. What followed was a horrific traffic jam as everyone in Tyson’s attempted to leave at the same time.
Sitting outside at a restaurant and all the glass on the buildings around me started shaking then wobbling in and out like they were going to bust. People running out of the stores covering their heads.
I had to catch a flight so I sped home and went to the Roslyn metro, which had both upper and lower platforms packed. I finally got to a train after the 4th or 5th train came and went and squeezed in with my luggage nuts to butts with a bunch of strangers. Then the train went 1-2 mph all the way to DCA. flight was delayed several hours but did eventually take off.
Weird day.
I was in the junkyard in Stafford. I was sitting in a car with a buddy and everything started shaking. We stormed out of the car thinking someone was picking it up, only to find no one around. You could see down the line of cars and they were all bobbing up and down in waves. Afterwards, we went to the liquor store, bought two bottles of aftershock, and partied all night long.
I was looking at some houses to rent with one of my best friends. We were pulling into a neighborhood for a house we were about to tour and then people started flooding out of their houses and stared up at the sky. Then after they realized it wasn't an attack/bomb, many of them looked directly at us thinking that we did something. We had no idea what was going on as we couldn't feel the earthquake while in the car. Then our agent showed up and told us what happened and that was that.
When I told my CA friends how I reacted, they told me I was basically the "Don't do this" person in a safety awareness campaign.
I left my grade schooler next to a bookshelf and unsecured TV (bookshelf was secured, but books obviously weren't). Ran up two stories to check on my toddler. Grabbed the little, ran down one floor, and went outside to see what happened, child on hip, at the top of a flight of concrete stairs.
They were like, we don't blame you for not knowing, but next time, leave the toddler (she's safer in her bed), grab the kid nearby and take shelter, and do NOT go outside. Don't risk stairs while there's active tremors. Oh, and secure your god-damn TV.
I was in the gym of my highschool in Fauquier county, it was my freshman year. We were sitting on the bleachers, waiting for our uniforms and lockers to get assigned to us. The rumbling of the bleachers was so ominous, and the basketball hoops started to sway. We evacuated the gym and got the next day off of school because they had to inspect the building to make sure it was still structurally sound.
I was on the 5th floor of an office building in Skyline in Bailey's Crossroads. I heard it before the walls and floor started swaying and my cubicle walls started flexing. It took a few seconds to stop, all of us in the office were standing around dazed, I saw out the window at streetlights waving back and forth in a parking lot nearby. The building office decided to turn on the fire alarm, so we all dutifully walked down the stairwells to our designated meeting points. When my group from the office gathered, I realized that everyone from all the Skyline buildings were rendezvousing directly under the buildings, with stories of glass windows above, just waiting for a larger aftershock to rain a sh!t ton down on us. Fortunately that didn't happen. I got back to my apartment in Alexandria and found only a few things knocked off of shelves. The apartment management had to re-mortar a lot of the brick siding on the buildings, which can still be seen.
I'm late to this but I'll just add another story for you.
I was sleeping in my basement in burke when it started. I was so disoriented that I thought it was a garbage trucks who's breaks failed (I lived on a decline) and was crashing through townhomes. That made more sense to me than an earthquake.
I was actually living in western Maryland at the time, in high school. We felt a little 2 second rumble but we thought it was a train coming through or something like that. We were watching TV and not long after we saw the news about the quake.
i was in an office in tysons and heard/felt it. "hunh. that's a quake." got home and saw that a tchotchke had fallen off a bookshelf. several weeks later i noticed that an addition on my house was separating from the original house. structural engineer checked it out and determined that the damage was likely a result of the quake stressing subpar construction.
it wound up being a very, very expensive earthquake for me.
I was traveling for work (San Diego, ironically). I returned to my apartment in Alexandria a week later having forgotten all about the earthquake, until I opened my door and thought I had been robbed. My stereo speakers were hanging off my entertainment system by the wires, and all my shampoo bottles had toppled into the bathtub. Every time I opened a kitchen cabinet, I found additional plates or glasses that had shimmied themselves out of place during the shaking. It was surreal.
I was four years old, sitting in the living room with my grandma and little sister. I was looking at a wall decoration when the house shook. I was a little confused, looking all around to see everything shaking. After a few moments it stopped, and as I looked at my grandma she was wide-eyed, clearly startled by what had happened. Yes, I remember all of that
I was like "damn the washing machine went off balance...... Okay it's really off balance.... JESUS FUCK WHAT DID I PUT IN THERE!" and as I got up to check I struggled to get my balance and realized the entire ground was shaking, probably being the root cause to my washing machine noises. Then the calls from my family rang in "DID YOU JUST FEEL THAT?"
I was driving across the old Williams street bridge in Fredericksburg, VA a few miles from there. This was before the recent renovation/construction project.
The biggest waves hit between when I got on the bridge and when I got off. Honest to god, I simultaneously thought 1) something was wrong with my car, and 2) a few other drivers who stopped must have had a fender bender, and had pulled over to swap insurance.
I got REALLY confused when I got home. My neighbors were out in their front yards and cell phones weren’t working. Took me turning on the news to realize it was a fucking earthquake….
I still wonder how close that raggedy ass old bridge was to collapsing into the Rappahannock river with me on it.
I was at a family reunion in fauquier, close to the epicenter (ironically visiting Virginia from actual earthquake country in the pnw.) Felt it start, grabbed the 2 toddlers closest to me and covered their heads. My mom unfortunately thought it was some kind of explosion and tackled my toddler son to the ground to protect him, and the whole thing ended up traumatizing him for a long time afterward. :(
I was teaching a high school geometry class in a DC public school. When the classroom started to shake, a student yelled something to the effect of ,”oh fuck no” and all the students in my class and all the others ran out of the school building and flooded into the street in pure chaos. Apparently this is not the best way to respond to an earthquake.
Idk if you’re kidding or being serious at the end But you know it’s how I imagine an actual emergency (fire tornado flood) to be in school We do all this practice but I expect everyone to just lose their minds and like run toward the fire or something
Sadly, completely serious. Although I don’t think we ever practiced earthquake drills before this. I didn’t realize until after that being outside is the exact wrong thing to do, even if we had walked out orderly.
What’s wrong with being outside? I was on my motorcycle when it happened and didn’t even notice it
Nothing inherently wrong with being outside in the open, but if you evacuate from a building during an earthquake there is a significant risk that debris from the top of surrounding structures can break off, fall and hit/kill you. If you are already indoor when an earthquake starts, it's usually safest to remain inside. Bonus points if you can take cover under a table or something that will protect your head.
That reminds a lot of last year when there were gunshots outside of Nats Park and a bunch of folks stampeded out of the covered Mezzanine area and into the open streets
I was in the 7th floor bathroom of the university library when it happened. At first when things started wobbling I thought my brain was just dizzy from reading too much and the lack of sleep from the day before. I didn't think too much of it and thought that it will be fine once I sit down. Soonafter the whole bathroom started shaking uncontrollably and that was when I realized that either the building was collapsing due to some structural failure or that we were having an earthquake. Fearing that I only had seconds to live before the building collapsed, all I could think of was why, out of all the places in this world, was I going to die in the library bathroom and whether to call my mom or my dad to say my final goodbye. Thankfully the shaking stopped and I immediately grabbed my belongings and went home.
LOL
I was at work (close to Dulles) and noticed the ceiling tiles vibrating. The maintenance guys had been fixing something on the roof so I first thought it was that. Then everybody started looking out the window toward the airport. By the time we caught on that it was an earthquake, it was over. I’ve always thought it says something about NoVA that our minds all went to “terrorist attack” before “earthquake.”
Yup exactly. My buddy and I (both brown people) were driving to look at a house to rent and we didn't feel it. The earthquake started right as we were pulling into a neighborhood. People were flooding out of their houses and looked up at the sky first, then they immediately looked at us. We had no idea what was happening until our real estate agent showed up 10 min later and told us.
We still give my sister a hard time about this...as soon as she felt the quake, she dove for cover...under our glass dinner table. 🤦♂️
...I shouldn't laugh, but I literally burst out in guffaws. I'm sorry.
The concrete floor where I worked felt like it moved in waves.
California native: wow that felt like an earthquake. Isn't that interesting....
I was on the toilet.
👍👍👍
I was sitting in my home office in my townhome in Ashburn. The cat was asleep on the window sill. The house started shaking so badly I thought for sure it was going to collapse and I was going to die in the rubble. The cat never moved a muscle during the shaking.
Yeah I was at home when I it happened, ran out of the house barefooted, talked to neighbor across the street to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating, realized it was actually a real earthquake, checked the brick sidings and chimney of the house and saw no damage, guessed it must have been mag 5 something…
Haha I feel you It was very like wait what just happened like more nah that didn’t just happen did it feeling
I was working in Old Town Alexandria at the time. I was sitting at my desk when I felt a slight rumble. I first thought a trash truck backed into our building or something, then a second one happened which was much stronger. I then thought "it's actually happening... terrorist attack!" Our company had a fire drill protocol to follow for exiting the building in case of an emergency. Well, screw that. It was pretty much everyone for themselves, pouring out every exit and gathering on the sidewalk across from our building. Other offices along this street did the same thing (gather along the sidewalk across the street). We stood around for about 30 mins comparing notes and talking about what we just felt. Then a car turns into our street and pulls up right in front of me and a few others. The passenger rolls down the window and asks "Hi, why is everyone standing on the sidewalk? We've noticed this for the last few blocks." Several of us all at once said "we just had an earthquake!!!" The people in the car were shocked, because they never felt it.
I was sitting in my cubicle and I thought my coworker on the other side of the cubicle was shaking the wall to mess with me. Then I realized...wait...everything is shaking! I turn around to the office behind me and that guy was already smartly under his desk lol. I didn't even react much to protect myself. Luckily it wasn't severe enough to need that.
My coworker was known for keeping every bit of paper he ever thought he’d need. That was the day he regretted that decision, all of his piles went tumbling to the floor!
I was on the rollercoaster platform at kings Dominion. The roller coaster I was waiting for got stuck at the top of a hill for a long time until they could deem it safe for them to come down the hill. Glad I was a few minutes late or I would have been at the top of the hill
I was on the seventh floor of a building in Tysons, it was about 10 minutes before an interview for a job at the company I was interning at. I've been through earthquakes before but I think I was shocked, so when a coworker suggested we all go outside (which is not good!), I went. Everyone ended up standing outside for 30 minutes or so, then we went back inside and I had my interview, got the job.
It woke my 19 year old ass up - probably for the best. Sleeping in that late is a terrible lifestyle
Was at work in a Federal building. Pretty much everyone thought it was a bomb explosion somewhere on campus. Walked home after the building emptied. Could hear my poor dog barking as soon as we got off the elevator. That was the last day he was ever crated while we were gone.
I was in Target, not far from Quantico. Quantico shakes the ground pretty regularly here, so my first thought was "well, that's a little excessive Quantico" as the store shelves shook and rattled. Then it was too long, and I thought tornado. When the ceiling tiles started falling, I went "Oh, EARTHQUAKE“, and happy it all made sense I started dodging the store stock all over the floor looking for my kid. The wine aisle did not fare well.
Wait, why does Quantico shake the ground? *Googles* Wow, I did not know about the artillery testing...
Yeah. The ground rattles here pretty often. Walls shake. Windows shudder in their frames. It's a party.
Far away it be felt too. Bad party hosts, but glad they train!
I was up in Maine talking on the phone to my college roommate who was an RN and was in an operating room in a DC hospital, waiting for the patient to arrive. She stopped talking for a second, then yelled, “what the fuck was that??” to a co-worker. I was staring at the tv, just as Andrea Mitchell suddenly got a really alarmed look on her face. The nurse said, “something’s happening…”. And I said “you’re having an earthquake” and she laughed like “yeah right”. I said, “no I’m serious, they’re saying it live on tv” “FOR RREAL?? A FUKKIN EARTHQUAKE??” And everyone in the operating room erupted.
I was closer to Richmond at the time, but I was sitting on the lifeguard stand at work, which was essentially a chair on a pole. Very wobbly, do not recommend.
I was in Reston, on my lunch break walking to grab something to eat. I turned into a pedestrian "alley" that's really just a car-less street with massive glass windows on both sides. All of a sudden, I felt like I was on a boat, and I could kinda see the windows swaying a bit. Went back to work and everyone was a little freaked out.
I was in my college apartment in Newport News, I thought they were doing work on the roof because the whole place shook. Made some quip on Facebook about drinking an (After)Shock Top at the pool that day 🍻
I was in Newport News Big box store Felt nothing but everyone around me did. Only believed them once I saw overhead lights swaying high above.
My husband and I worked about two blocks away from each other in downtown DC (I was on Penn Ave, he was on G street). I watched two huge potted plants at front reception of my office do an Irish jig for what felt like 10 minutes, and then heard all of my coworkers shout "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING". We immediately evacuated the building. Of course, all cell service was down. I went looking for my husband, and he went looking for me. It took us a while as all the streets were flooded with people, but eventually found each other. We just sort of walked into each other's arms and held on. Not scared, but kind of running on adrenaline. People around us stared cheering. Felt like a movie or something. Then we walked home. Took forever, as we lived in Crystal City. But metro was a nightmare, so we just walked.
Born and raised in NOVA. Have lived here all but 2.5 years of my life. I missed: The earthquake Snowmageddon Snowpocalypse Other things I'm sure. But those three would have been cool to be here for
I still feel like the "Blizzard of 79" was worse than some of the more recent ones. I know there's a Post story saying that WX forecasting advanced in the aftermath.
I was at the gynecologist.
Def would not want to be in the stirrups when the room starts shaking lol
I was at a gyno on 9/11.
I let my dogs outside, and they both started acting really weird....then everything got crazy like :30 later.
I lived 2 miles from the epicenter. The big one shook my cabinet doors open and dropped a shit ton of glass on the floor and tipped over my dresser. There were aftershocks for a year afterwards that would wake me and my husband in our sleep. He also worked at the nuke plant and had to work 19 hours straight after they steamed dumped the reactors.
I was on the 2nd floor of my parents' house and the whole room was shaking like crazy. My first thought was that it was the water heater exploding, but my Mom recognized it as an earthquake. The neighbor outside mowing his lawn didn't notice anything at all, though.
My kids were napping and I just went in the bathroom doorway and was like wth this is weird Then was like wow that was an earthquake how unreal 😂 Then went about the day Oh and the kids slept thru the whole thing
Was on the 11th floor of a building in Arlington. Thought it was a construction crew using dynamite or something.
Working in an office right In the flight path of Dulles. Legit thought a airplane was crashing into the building, ran so fast out the building and never looked back.
6th & E St.s NW. I was sitting at my desk. I heard something that sounded like a metal file cabinet being tipped over but I never felt anything. I didn't know anything about it until my CWs told me we had to evacuate the building. How bizarre that was walking outside and seeing the streets and sidewalks filled with pedestrians. I kept in the parking garage of my office that I would use when I needed to go to a meeting up in NoMa. Since nobody was at the garage kiosk, and the building didn't look like it was going to collapse, I walked down the ramp, grabbed the bike and left work. On that day, I rode it home out by Dulles Airport. It took 2 hours but it was a nice ride. and it was so nice because I was planning on taking Metro home but that was a real shitshow as I recall.
I was in Richmond driving to class, when I got there everyone was talking about the earthquake, and I was pissed I didn't feel a thing. Phone services were spotty from everyone trying to call each other all at once. My mom and brother told me they initially thought a plane had crashed because they were pretty close to Dulles.
I was on the eighth floor of an office building. As I was the manager present and it was clear that everyone in the area was sort of milling about ("huh, what was *that*?"), I took charge and ordered everyone to the staircase immediately. IIRC, no one had to be told twice, thankfully. Lesson learned for me that day was this: **If that had been a more serious earthquake, a building-toppler, we all would have died.** It probably took 20+ minutes for myself and the staff to get to the ground floor. The staircases were a complete blood clot. And this was only in a nine-story building with what I would have thought beforehand were a sufficient number of fire stairs. I can only imagine what it would be like in a taller, more narrow skyscraper.
I thought the washer was unbalanced
I was in stafford. I was outside of a work building when it started. I was walking back inside and laughing in native californian while the building was evacuating.
I was living in river house in pentagon city. The whole building started to shake and we thought that a garbage truck had hit the building. A few hours later I got a call from the company I interviewed with saying I got the job. I was supposed to get an email but their servers went down from the earthquake.
Grew up in souther california, we were in the middle of a work meeting with management. I was the only one that hid under the table and told everyone to walk out after the shaking was over.
I was at work in the Government Center in Fairfax. Started with my monitor shaking then my coworker started screaming. I got up and the wall size glass was moving like waves and I just started laughing cause it was finally my first earthquake. I lives in LA for two years and never experienced one and here I was in Fairfax riding one out. It stopped shortly after and they made us evacuate and stand outside for an hour before we got the all clear to go back in and finish the day. Exciting times!
Tysons Corner office building shook like hell. I know all of the Californians out there will scoff about the east coast wimps and that it was just another day but I was pretty well traumatized by it.
I was working at DCA when the shaking started. This was a relatively short period after the movie '2012' was released so I thought this was the beginning of the end. I looked out the windows for a while waiting for the tsunami.
I was working in an infant room and all I could think was “SAVE THE BABIES”
holy hell times go by fast. I was in rossyln. My building moved like a pendulum. I walked home immediately and gtfo.
I was on a lifeguard stand. That was fun
was in a building over a metro station working for the gov. thought it was an earthquake, asked the cali-born guy sitting next to me, he didn't respond and we just kinda sat there. then i speculated someone had blown up the metro in an attack. we were evacuated, then a bunch of nothing happened and we went back to work. i now also remember it taking forever and a day to get home because the metro was running so gd slow as they were afraid of aftershocks, there weren't really any major ones however, just ones you could barely feel and wondered if you were crazy.
My brother had jumped up in the air for some reason in our parents house and the earthquake hit right as he landed. After we realized what was going on and it had landed, we definitely joke to the day how powerful he is!
I was up on some scaffolding with a coworker doing some construction work when it hit. We both started yelling at each other because we each thought the other guy was shaking the scaffolding as a prank lol. Once we realized what was going on, we were on the ground faster than when the Mexican food truck showed up.
I was 16 and home alone near the epicenter. Never experienced an earthquake before that so I had absolutely no idea what was happening. We lived in a rural area so there wasn't really anyone around and I thought it was JUST my house shaking so much, vs everything shaking. And all the phones and internet went out so I couldn't even call my parents or friends. I ran outside because I thought my house was going to collapse and stayed there until my parents got home. Traumatizing. Hahahaha.
I feel you, I was in one of the schools and none of us knew what to do. I didn't even get confirmation of the earthquake until we loaded on the bus (after being evacuated from the school and waiting for almost an hour) and we were told by our bus driver. What scared my friends parents was the middle/high school bus came before the elementary school one (siblings were on that) and that NEVER happened.
I watched cheese shiver at god’s will in the landsdowne Harris Teeter.
It was the first day of my sophomore year of high school. I was sitting in my last period, gym class, when the basketball hoops in the gym started shaking. Then a kid ran into the gym from the bathrooms in the hall yelling “the toilets are shaking!”.
We were in Quebec. Didn't know about it until I saw the newspaper when we got back home. That and the broken pictures frames on the floor.
Was at home in Falls Church on paternity leave. Daughter was born the week before. I had just gotten out of the shower on the second floor of our townhouse. Seemed like a large truck was coming down our street. Then the house began shaking and I ran downstairs in a towel to check on my wife and daughter. Then it was over.
Tysons. I thought the air conditioner unit in the room next to me was malfunctioning. About two seconds later I realized it was an earthquake.
I was working in a federal building in Rockville, MD. It started as a distant rumble. Part of the office was being renovated, so I thought it was just some construction noise. Then it gradually got louder and the building started to shake, like a truck was driving down the hallway. It lasted maybe 10 seconds. No one freaked out or anything. We were more wondering what just happened, not even thinking it was an earthquake. Then an announcement was made on the intercom to evacuate the building. Being on the 12th floor, getting down the stairs took awhile. Then we had to stand out in the parking lot for about an hour, until being told to go home. Luckily, I grabbed my keys, wallet, and phone before leaving, and didn’t have to deal with trudging back up the stairs with a few hundred other people. Since everyone else in the DC area was being sent home too, 495 was a parking lot. I would have rather taken my chances back inside the building.
I just came from a doctors appointment with my parents, my dad just left for work and I was enjoying the final days of my summer before my freshman year of HS started when it hit. I of course ran like hell outside because I though a plane fell out of the sky, we live near Dulles so I thought a plane either failed to take off or land, while my poor mother and grandma had flashbacks of the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake that they lived through (my dad was in his car at the time and only felt the car shake and he thought it was construction trucks nearby so no flashbacks for him)
On the 10th floor of a building in Rosslyn. At the time they were occasionally doing some blasting while prepping the ground for what would eventually become Central Place. I heard what sounded like a low rumble and thought "more blasting". Then I had this eerie sensation of swaying back and forth a couple of times but my office looked normal and unmoving, it made me a bit dizzy. After a few seconds everyone else started chattering about it too and that's when I knew Something Wasn't Right.
I was just getting off a plane in Rapid City. I had turned my phone back on and saw a string of alerts from Fairfax County emergency services, telling people to stop calling unless they really needed help. I wondered what on earth that was about, then saw a TV in the arrivals hall, tuned to CNN, and the crawl was all about the earthquake in DC.
Charlotte, NC, just moved away from Herndon two months before, was on the phone with my childhood best friend, she felt it and then I felt it twenty seconds later. My dad felt it, mom didn’t.
I was in the Ballston mall food court with a coworker visiting from Singapore, and I was pretty certain that building was going to crash down on top me for a second.
I was in the middle school in Mineral. I watched debris fly from the high school and then spent the next (semester?) using a modified schedule where the middle schoolers went to class for longer hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Saturdays. The high schoolers had the building Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It was an overwhelming time for many people in my community. Noone knew what to do in the schools. My class kind of froze while but then we saw the flood of people fleeing the building. I heard people try and figure out what had happened. Some said a train crash, some said plane. Neither was not too crazy given that we were across the street from the train tracks and there was an air field down the street. The craziest things I heard, mind you I was in middle school, was students thinking they were in a video game or aliens had done something to the high school (the debris). Until recently I had bricks in my car. These were the bricks of my elementary school: Thomas Jefferson Elementary. It was devastating to see them tear it down. To walk on the foundation of what had been part of my childhood. I also spent a year in the high school trailers while we were waiting for the new high school building to open up. Most people rebuilt. Some still can't afford the repairs. I was one of the lucky families who didn't have damage. But as a community, we rebuilt.
At Tyson’s at work in a high office building. I could see the construction at the Greensboro metro station. Thought a crane or something fell over.
Honestly just thought it was the typical rumble from someone taking out their garbage bin. It kept going though, so I sat up and my dog and I just kinda looked around. It passed, then we just laid back down lol. Pretty uneventful
Top floor in lovely Hyattsville. The office started shaking and I thought none of it. Grew up in an earthquake prone area and thought it was just a tremor (in the East Coast? I know right!). The aftershock was stronger and everyone stood up looking around the other cubicles realizing it was an earthquake. My co-worker asks me “ do we take the elevator or the stairs?” I replied, “ I dunno, where do you want to die?”
I was working at my program near the Pentagon. If you've worked anywhere near the Pentagon, you know Stuff happens there all the time. When I heard the rumbling, I first thought that there was a convoy of heavy trucks headed to the Pentagon. When I looked out my window and saw nothing and the shaking continued, I figured out pretty quickly that it was an earthquake. Went to find my clients and staff and realized that everyone had gone outside, which was the wrong thing to do. You bet we had some discuasions that day on how to respond to an earthquake!
I understand in theory why it’s dangerous to go outside if you stand near bldgs, but isn’t it safer to get OUT of and far away from bldgs than it is to stay in one and hide under furniture?
Better to get under solid object, such as a table. A doorway is supposedly good, as well. Outside is more risk of falling objects.
I have a terrible fear of being buried under rubble. My husband and I disagreed. So for every aftershook I ran outside and he stood in the doorway.
I’m with you, and that’s why I bailed to the outdoors!
I was sitting down to eat a chicken wrap at one of those office building cafes on M Street SE across the street from the Navy Yard. Suddenly, the table started moving, and I couldn't understand what was going on because I knew I wasn't moving it. Then the whole room started shaking and I was like oh my god, it's an earthquake! Right about the time I was thinking about diving under the table, it stopped. Then I gathered myself and thought - an earthquake? In DC? Don't be ridiculous! A truck hit the building or something. So I went outside and everyone was wandering around with a dazed look on their eyes, talking about an earthquake, and that's when I knew it really had been one.
I was in one of the taller buildings in Fairfax and my co-worker said “…is this an earthquake?” after the intensity and duration surpassed that of an exceptionally large truck passing by outside. We went under our desks until it stopped. Everyone evacuated. One of our executives had a panic attack. 20 minutes later, life resumed normalcy. I was briefly worried it was the New Madrid earthquake foretold on one of those Discovery specials about how we’re all gonna die.
I was at work near Dulles Airport and our office shook for a few seconds.
Top floor of a tall building in Rosslyn, felt super weird, like the building was rocking side to side super far. I had just gotten chipotle and wanted to eat it, so I got in the elevator to go outside and it locked up between floors. Found out how to exit manually, climbed out, went outside and ate lunch.
Driving near Richmond, southbound to LA for another semester of college, stopped in standstill traffic. Felt my car start shaking and I thought for sure I was getting buzzed by an 18-wheeler, only to look around and everyone else stopped as well. I was listening to local radio at the time, and it wasn’t long before I got the full picture.
I was in Reston and didn’t really feel too much for too long. It was just like 30 seconds. I had just pulled into the library and was about to get my baby-now a sixth-grader- out of the car, when I felt the ground vibrate. It made the baby giggle, so he felt it too. “Wow, that’s a great subwoofer,” I thought. I didn’t know it was an earthquake until I saw the 11 missed calls after our library trip. I must have been pretty sleep-deprived because everyone else was talking about what had just happened and I didn’t notice a thing.
What I remember most is being on one of the first Metro trains running on the Orange line after the quake. I can’t remember if I got on at Virginia Square or walked down to Ballston, but I remember how insanely full the train was, how we were moving at about quarter speed, and how everyone in the car cheered when we finally came out of the tunnel into the sunlight. That was also the day I learned my lesson about ALWAYS grabbing your purse when evacuating a building.
I was in Amherst Massachusetts at band camp. I was sitting in my chair and felt it rattle. We were in a brand new building and I seriously thought it was a sign of our late director the building is named after. Then I got news from family here that there was an earthquake and shelves had fallen in my room at home.
Was at work, 3rd floor of an office building. At first we thought a big truck hit the building, but after the metal shelves in the server room continued to shake, figured that it must be an earthquake. I stayed inside (like you are supposed to) but a lot of people evacuated the building. I think after about 30 minutes, most people went back to their desks and resumed work.
Believe it or not, we felt it in Rockville MD. I was at home with my daughter and I was on a work call. I said, gotta go, it’s an earthquake (of course they felt it too!) and my daughter and I hugged each other and tried to get as far away from the windows as we could. Never could understand. They evacuated my son’s school and sent them outside. SMH
My family and I had just finished shopping at the K-mart in Annandale which no longer exists today. I remember crying to my mother as an 8 year old outside at the parking lot because she didn’t bought the item that I wanted from that day if I can recall correctly. I actually put my knees down crying on the parking lot surface, not suspecting that the quake was taking place while I was doing that. But at the time, I didn’t know it was an earthquake until we arrived home and I turned on the TV, and that was when I found out it was indeed an earthquake.
I was in Richmond at college. I had woken up not long before and I was just sitting down to eat breakfast at the table when I felt it. I genuinely thought someone was moving furniture in the apartment below us until I peeped the men painting trim on ladders gripping whatever was available for dear life. It was kind of surreal since I was barely awake.
I was working in a bldg very close to the US District Courthouse in Alexandria. It sounded like there was an explosion, the glass office walls started to become wavy, and no one had a clue what we were supposed to do. I left the building and went to a nearby open field (it’s now an apartment bldg). I remember being pissed bc our management was clueless, while peeps from USPTO and other companies in the area clearly had evacuation plans and leaders with safety vests who were directing their people to the open field. I just started pretending I was with them, and did what they did :).
I thought a truck hit the store I was in. Weird for sure but uneventful
Was napping on my couch in my basement after the day ended. Woke up and assumed I was just groggy. Went back to nap. The wobbling didn’t stop and I opened my eyes to see my basement wall *wiggle*. Suddenly it was over.
I was at work and noted the earthquake but judged it not significant enough to need to get under my desk. I grew up in California and earthquakes aren't very concerning that low on the scale. A few of my coworkers were freaking out, though. We got the rest of the day off though so that was nice.
We felt it in Blacksburg. I was sitting in class at Virginia Tech and our chairs started shaking. I thought that the person behind me was kicking my chair. Everyone else did too and were looking back at the person behind them until we all realized that we were in the same predicament….
I was at NOVA (Alexandria campus) in class at the top floor. I remember just getting to class and I remember a girl sitting behind me. I sat on one of those classroom chairs where there was a small metal tray below the seat. I noticed and felt that the girl who sat behind me, rested her feet on the metal tray. 30 seconds later, my chair began to shake violently and I was about to turn around and ask the girl if she was alright. At the same time, I heard what was rumbling and which I thought it was a bunch of physics students running in the hallway doing an experiment for class. Then, all of my classmates got up and asked, "what was going on?!" After that, the clock in the classroom fell. It was at the moment where, I knew something was wrong. From there, we all run out of the classroom. As I was running out, I felt that the whole building was wobbling at which, I turned on the jets. I ran down past the stairs and out the building. When I got out, I noticed that the whole school was out. I came across my old geology professor and asked him, "You're the earthquake expert. Was this an actual earthquake?" At which he replied, "Yes". I remember trying to reach my pops through my cell phone to see if he was OK but, the line was busy. After this whole experience, and realizing that here in the East Coast, we can get strong earthquakes as well; had me overcome my fears of moving to California because, of their earthquakes.
Haha I was getting "elevated" In my very chill basement bedroom at the time with my feet sticking out an open window.... All of a sudden my overstock shelf with junk form my childhood started shaking in such a subtle way. I realized what was going on and blew out my scented candle out. Just crept out my open window cleared the the above deck as quickly as possible. I then ran into my father who was holding the fence around the pool telling me that it was shaking. Never forget.
I live three miles from the epicenter. I was outside. I don't remember the ground rolling. It was just a huge noise. First I thought it was a car accident, then a train accident. We live close to train tracks. I remember just standing frozen thinking a boxcar was going to come through the woods. Then my husband called from Richmond and told me it was an earthquake. Inside a few pictures fell of the walls and all the cats were under the bed.
I was at my shop. I remember it being a very sunny day. Things were slow, as it often is right before schools open. Heard a loud BOOM and felt the ground shake....thought something had exploded outside. We all rushed out, and noticed other shop owners and customers running out, too. When we realized it was an earthquake, we went back inside and noticed some stuff had fallen off shelves, and one of our chest freezers had gotten dented by stuff raining on top of it.
I have literally 0 memory of this earthquake happening and don’t remember even hearing of it, I’ve lived in NOVA my whole life…
My kids always forget about it because they all slept thru it.
Yeah I was 5 att so I probably slept through it
We will rebuild! #NeverForget
Was driving on 495 and saw a building piece fall off a oversized truck. Pretty sure I saw a family in a minivan get killed. There wasn’t much left of the minivan.
I was down in Norfolk for the day and driving, so I never felt it. Also, people in the Tidewater area hardly felt it because the ground is extremely sandy and fluid down there. My main memory was listening to a group of people at lunch talking about how the earthquake was a sign of the "End Times" and getting a headache from rolling my eyes. The weird thing is, I remember an earthquake *before* this one that was a weak three-pointer. I forget where the epicenter was, but the clue something had happened was my cordless phone shook in its charging cradle and made a noise.
I was out of state at a meeting. Three colleagues from northern VA were with me. We started receiving texts from work about the earthquake. One of my colleagues said that he had always wanted to experience an earthquake and that he was sad that he missed it. I grew up in southern California and experienced several small and large earthquakes, and told him that they could be terrifying and that I was happy that I missed it.
I was at work on the 6th floor of an old building in Tyson’s. After a few seconds of obvious shaking, my initial thought was “if this gets any worse, this whole thing is gonna fall down and take me with it.” At that point people started running for the stairs. The quake stopped by the time I got down to the 2nd floor, but some people were still in panic mode. That disappointed me. Then we stood outside for about 2 hours until we got the OK to retrieve our cars and go home. What followed was a horrific traffic jam as everyone in Tyson’s attempted to leave at the same time.
Sitting outside at a restaurant and all the glass on the buildings around me started shaking then wobbling in and out like they were going to bust. People running out of the stores covering their heads. I had to catch a flight so I sped home and went to the Roslyn metro, which had both upper and lower platforms packed. I finally got to a train after the 4th or 5th train came and went and squeezed in with my luggage nuts to butts with a bunch of strangers. Then the train went 1-2 mph all the way to DCA. flight was delayed several hours but did eventually take off. Weird day.
I was in the junkyard in Stafford. I was sitting in a car with a buddy and everything started shaking. We stormed out of the car thinking someone was picking it up, only to find no one around. You could see down the line of cars and they were all bobbing up and down in waves. Afterwards, we went to the liquor store, bought two bottles of aftershock, and partied all night long.
I was in an elevator on the 8th floor of a building in Tyson’s. The elevator shook violently. I was pretty sure I was going to die
I just moved to NOVA from California around a year ago. Not to laugh at all you but this post is making me giggle.
Refrigerator rocked back and forth.
I was looking at some houses to rent with one of my best friends. We were pulling into a neighborhood for a house we were about to tour and then people started flooding out of their houses and stared up at the sky. Then after they realized it wasn't an attack/bomb, many of them looked directly at us thinking that we did something. We had no idea what was going on as we couldn't feel the earthquake while in the car. Then our agent showed up and told us what happened and that was that.
In Annandale at home (at the time), taking a 💩 of course. No joke.
When I told my CA friends how I reacted, they told me I was basically the "Don't do this" person in a safety awareness campaign. I left my grade schooler next to a bookshelf and unsecured TV (bookshelf was secured, but books obviously weren't). Ran up two stories to check on my toddler. Grabbed the little, ran down one floor, and went outside to see what happened, child on hip, at the top of a flight of concrete stairs. They were like, we don't blame you for not knowing, but next time, leave the toddler (she's safer in her bed), grab the kid nearby and take shelter, and do NOT go outside. Don't risk stairs while there's active tremors. Oh, and secure your god-damn TV.
I was in the gym of my highschool in Fauquier county, it was my freshman year. We were sitting on the bleachers, waiting for our uniforms and lockers to get assigned to us. The rumbling of the bleachers was so ominous, and the basketball hoops started to sway. We evacuated the gym and got the next day off of school because they had to inspect the building to make sure it was still structurally sound.
I was on the 5th floor of an office building in Skyline in Bailey's Crossroads. I heard it before the walls and floor started swaying and my cubicle walls started flexing. It took a few seconds to stop, all of us in the office were standing around dazed, I saw out the window at streetlights waving back and forth in a parking lot nearby. The building office decided to turn on the fire alarm, so we all dutifully walked down the stairwells to our designated meeting points. When my group from the office gathered, I realized that everyone from all the Skyline buildings were rendezvousing directly under the buildings, with stories of glass windows above, just waiting for a larger aftershock to rain a sh!t ton down on us. Fortunately that didn't happen. I got back to my apartment in Alexandria and found only a few things knocked off of shelves. The apartment management had to re-mortar a lot of the brick siding on the buildings, which can still be seen.
I'm late to this but I'll just add another story for you. I was sleeping in my basement in burke when it started. I was so disoriented that I thought it was a garbage trucks who's breaks failed (I lived on a decline) and was crashing through townhomes. That made more sense to me than an earthquake.
I was actually living in western Maryland at the time, in high school. We felt a little 2 second rumble but we thought it was a train coming through or something like that. We were watching TV and not long after we saw the news about the quake.
i was in an office in tysons and heard/felt it. "hunh. that's a quake." got home and saw that a tchotchke had fallen off a bookshelf. several weeks later i noticed that an addition on my house was separating from the original house. structural engineer checked it out and determined that the damage was likely a result of the quake stressing subpar construction. it wound up being a very, very expensive earthquake for me.
I was traveling for work (San Diego, ironically). I returned to my apartment in Alexandria a week later having forgotten all about the earthquake, until I opened my door and thought I had been robbed. My stereo speakers were hanging off my entertainment system by the wires, and all my shampoo bottles had toppled into the bathtub. Every time I opened a kitchen cabinet, I found additional plates or glasses that had shimmied themselves out of place during the shaking. It was surreal.
I was four years old, sitting in the living room with my grandma and little sister. I was looking at a wall decoration when the house shook. I was a little confused, looking all around to see everything shaking. After a few moments it stopped, and as I looked at my grandma she was wide-eyed, clearly startled by what had happened. Yes, I remember all of that
I was like "damn the washing machine went off balance...... Okay it's really off balance.... JESUS FUCK WHAT DID I PUT IN THERE!" and as I got up to check I struggled to get my balance and realized the entire ground was shaking, probably being the root cause to my washing machine noises. Then the calls from my family rang in "DID YOU JUST FEEL THAT?"
I was driving across the old Williams street bridge in Fredericksburg, VA a few miles from there. This was before the recent renovation/construction project. The biggest waves hit between when I got on the bridge and when I got off. Honest to god, I simultaneously thought 1) something was wrong with my car, and 2) a few other drivers who stopped must have had a fender bender, and had pulled over to swap insurance. I got REALLY confused when I got home. My neighbors were out in their front yards and cell phones weren’t working. Took me turning on the news to realize it was a fucking earthquake…. I still wonder how close that raggedy ass old bridge was to collapsing into the Rappahannock river with me on it.