Today was the first day that I was to pick up my boy at his school. He is in K and I wanted to be early so he would see me right away and not worry that i had forgotten to come for him. I was sitting in front of the school in my van around 2 o'clock reading my book when I noticed the wind getting up. It was so bad my van was shaking. I thought that was odd because the trees were not shaking much. Then a man came out of the school and looked up at the top of the school. My windows were down and I was watching him so he said I thought someone was walking around up on the roof. It sounded like it anyway, but there isn't anyone there. Then he went back inside. I got the boy a few minutes later and came home. That is when I found out we had just had an earthquake! Yeah I am sort of dense! We don't get earthquakes here often so that was pretty strange. The kids thought it was cool. What a week! And it is only Tuesday!
I didn't feel it at our house, but my DH felt it at his office just 15 minutes away. Pretty strange for the East Coast.
We didn't feel it here, but Rachael's friends who only live about ten miles away posted about it on FB.
Oh, I am just as dense..... Had just stretched out on my bed with a very late lunch.....felt the vibrations and thought "who put an unbalanced load in the washing machine?" As I was walking to the laundry room, I looked out the window and saw the hanging flowers swaying and the waves in the pool. Wondered "what in the world?" DS19 says "it's an earthquake!" and I rolled my eyes and didn't believe him. Thought it had to be an explosion nearby or plane crash. Now there is no living with Mr. Right!!!
:lol: I don't live in VA, but was close enough to get a good shaking. It didn't immediately register that something was unusual, because we sometimes get short booms and shakes from military bases in the area, especially on cloudy days. The last couple days, I've been able to hear some machinery working nearby, and as the shaking started to build, my first thought was something went really wrong with that. Then I was concerned that a helicopter heading for the nearby hospital went down. Then I heard something crash upstairs (turned out to be the ironing board falling over), my son ran downstairs asking *what's happening?*, and the house was shaking, it was noisy, and I thought the AC unit in the attic was going to blow and I was concerned about fire so I grabbed my cell phone and ds and ran outdoors. The neighbor (who has Parkinson's) was out on his riding mower like nothing was up. I didn't feel any shaking outside (it was probably over by that time). After I walked around to see my attic hadn't blown up and all was quiet, I went back in and the big light fixture in the foyer was still swinging and there was a smell of drywall dust and you could see dust particles in the sunshine. The power was still on, so I tried to call a relative who lives 20-30 miles away (and not too far from a nuclear plant) and my cell phone call wouldn't go through. I tried calling dh and that didn't go through either. An older neighbor (wife of the guy still out mowing) called to see if I felt it too because she wondered if it was just her. I was getting concerned about the military bases in the area. I was quite relieved when I saw the breaking news header about the earthquake -- that it was *just* an earthquake and nothing had blown up
Well, according to FB, they've got probably causes for it: "The Weather Channel says today's east coast earthquake was caused by an unknown fault line running under D.C. and through Virginia. It is now being called Obama's Fault, though Obama will say it's really... Bush's Fault. Other theories are that it was the founding fathers rolling over in their graves, or that what we all believed to be an earthquake was actually the effects of a 14.6 trillion dollar check bouncing in Washington."
:lol: I think it's an insurance conspiracy . I just got an e-mail reminding me that my homeowner's policy specifically excludes earthquake damage, but can be modified to include that coverage, for an additional fee. All we had (that I can tell) is a few nailpops and a bit of dust in the air, but isn't it nice to know if we had real damage we wouldn't have been covered at all?
I didn't feel it in SC. Some people that live in the same town as me felt it. I guess it was what you were doing at that moment. Jackie, I read that on facebook. I loved it!
I'm just as dense. I didn't really notice anything until my husband called out from his office, "Is the house shaking?" I did learn something. Facebook is our first stop for news coverage. It was all over my news feed there before any actual news outlet reported it. Jackie, a friend of mine posted part of that status on FB but I hadn't read it all. Too funny.
I read that, as it rippled out toward the west, some people FBed others, and those further out actually read about it on FB BEFORE it hit where they were!
Earthquakes are strange - you just don't expect the ground to start shaking. People who grow up with them recognize them immediately, but those of us who haven't... Takes a while for it to sink in what's happening!
