I’m seeing lots of tweets from DC folks.
Actually, while I have a lot of friends there, a Richter 10 would solve a lot of the country’s problems.
Seriously, there’s a lot of old unreinforced colonial masonry there. A good shake could do a lot of damage in Old Town Alexandria, and the district as well.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Wow, a 5.8 in Virginia, a few tens of miles from DC. Pentagon and Capitol being evacuated.
[Update a few minutes later]
Apparently people are reporting it from New England, including a Fox reporter in Martha’s Vineyard. Here’s a Free Republic thread, with a report from Cleveland. Instapundit has a report that they didn’t actually evacuate the Pentagon, but that some rapidly exited on their own. It’s been declared safe now.
[Update a few minutes later]
Hmmm…Obama is out of town, can’t blame him. Must be Bush’s fault.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Looking at the map, it’s just east of Charlottesville, toward Richmond. Let’s hope it’s not a foreshock.
Even if it’s not, it could still be a bad week. Irene seems to be targeting the same area, with an arrival this coming weekend.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I’ve heard that cells are jammed. Folks, text, don’t talk. That will free up bandwidth for the first responders.
[Update]
No, it’s not too soon. Quake humor: “Krugman says it wasn’t big enough.” Hey, didn’t I say that, up above? Stopped clock, I guess.
Also, social media is faster than seismic waves.
[Update a few minutes later]
See what I meant about unreinforced masonry? “The historic Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington has cracks in the interior walls by the earthquake.”
That’s the red stone “castle” on the mall, the original Smithsonian Building and now its headquarters. A bigger shake, closer to the DC area, would do a lot of damage, because it’s not designed for earthquakes (even the new buildings). East coasters are way too complacent about this. They think that because it hasn’t happened in their lifetimes, that it can’t happen.
[Bumped]
I live in virgina and my house was just shaking.
I’m working in Totowa, NJ, and we felt it here. I have co-workers in Bay Shore, NY (Eastern Long Island), and Albany, NY (upstate NY), who report that they felt it as well.
USGS has this near or at the surface. We sure it is not an explosion?
We felt it in Pittsburgh, PA!
I felt it in the Philly suburbs. I’ve seen other reports saying it was felt in Michigan and Toronto.
Felt it pretty strong in Frederick, MD. My wife works in DC and they are shutting down here office building near Union Station. Don’t know why, but suspect it is because it is an unseasonably nice day and all the gummit workers want the afternoon off.
Earthquake today, hurricane this weekend. I predict locust on Tuesday.!
We sure it is not an explosion?
I heard about a kilometer down. If it was an explosion, and a deliberate one, it seems like a strange location for it.
Now I’m hearing more like six kilometers.
Yeah, USGS has it at 6km (3.7mi), which is still pretty shallow.
Looks like too much stress on Bush’s Fault.
Speaking of bandwidth I was just looking at this site.
Distributive communications without infrastructure. Pretty neat if everyone installs it before an emergency.
My wife and kids felt it big time in Maryland. All cell service is out even there, and that’s all we have. Good thing we are mostly texters anyway.
I would have felt it (working in downtown DC), but am down in Florida — and can’t leave until just about the time Irene shows up…
@Ryan unfortunately it’s only been ported to Ubuntu and Android so far. Not much help to the rest of us. Depends on a Linux kernel patch for the network. It can probably be made to work with Windows and MacOSX after much research and editing, but I’d say forget an iPhone app any time soon.
MANETs sound great, but the limitation of ISM RF means lots of holes. Plus, if there is major devistation, then there is likely insufficient power for the various nodes.
Since the FCC, and reasonably so for the medium, controls RF frequencies, the best would be to create a new ISM band specifically for Wi-Fi that allowed more powerful transmitters.