Advertisement
Nation Now

5.9 earthquake hits Virginia, jolts N.Y. and Carolinas

By Tina Susman
, Stephen Ceasar and Rene Lynch
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A magnitude-5.9 earthquake struck Virginia at about 1:50 p.m. (EDT), the U.S. Geological Survey reported Tuesday. Tremors were felt in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee and the Carolinas.

In New York City, some buildings were evacuated, and residents poured out of apartment buildings. ‘What happened?!’ one young woman, clutching her large black cat, asked as she rushed onto the street. The woman had been in her seventh-floor apartment in Brooklyn when the brick building began shaking and swaying.

Advertisement

The Associated Press said the Pentagon was being evacuated. The quake also interrupted a news conference that was about to be held by the New York district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., about the dropping of charges against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Vance was about to begin speaking to a room full of reporters, on the eighth floor of a building, when the shaking began.

PHOTOS: Earthquake hits the East Coast

Everyone leaped up and headed for the stairs. ‘No one really yelled. We were just trying to decipher what then and there what was going on,’ said a local TV reporter, Luz Plasencia, speaking to NY1, the city’s all-news channel. ‘We just said this is obviously not right. Let’s just get out of here.’

She said the obvious fear was that the city was being attacked. ‘All I could think of was I need to get out of here, I need to get outside, praying and hoping nothing would happen when we were in there.’

The impact was felt immediately on -- where else? -- Twitter.

5.8 magnitude!!! Really? An earthquake? I’m very skeptical. Maybe it was something else.... Hmm....@JamesWagnerWP

earthquake in NYC! @laughingsquid

An earthquake feels surprisingly like a panic attack. I thought my heart was just beating like crazy. @woodlandalyssa

Advertisement

And because you knew someone had to say it, there’s this:

Now you know what it feels like on the West Coast, East Coast! :D @hafelina

ALSO:

Bellagio bandit sentenced to at least 3 years in prison

All charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn dismissed

Hurricane Irene: Prepare for a Category 4 ‘major hurricane’

-- Tina Susman in New York City and Stephen Ceasar and Rene Lynch in Los Angeles

Nation Now
Tina Susman

Tina Susman, an Oakland native, is a former New York-based national correspondent who joined the Los Angeles Times as Baghdad bureau chief in January 2007. She got her start as a foreign correspondent with the Associated Press in South Africa, covering the end of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela. Dubbed by past editors “the master of disaster,” she has also worked in west Africa and done stints in Europe, Asia and Haiti. She is thrilled to now be in a city with quirky features, non-stop news, and functioning phones and electricity. She left The Times in 2015.

Stephen Ceasar

Stephen Ceasar previously covered California’s civil courts for the Los Angeles Times. A native of El Centro, Calif., he worked as a reporter for The Times’ education and national staffs, the New York Times and the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. He is a 2009 graduate of the University of Arizona. Ceasar left The Times in 2016.

Rene Lynch

Rene Lynch is a former writer and editor with the Saturday section, where she worked across a variety of coverage areas, including wellness, design and food. She also edited the weekly L.A. Affairs column.

Advertisement