5.8 Shakes Up VA

[Judaeus Apella]

I was minding my own business when all of a sudden the entire house started shaking, and it lasted a bloody long time! Turns out Virginia (I live in Richmond, right near the epicenter) had a 5.9 earthquake, and thats damn big for this area! The biggest one I was in was the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that collapsed of the two-level Cypress Street Viaduct of Interstate 880 in West Oakland. It was pretty awful. People were squished in their cars like someone stomping on ketchup packets. I remember it being on the TV as a kid for weeks. So from what I hear it wasn't as bad as it felt. No widespread damage or anything, but they did shut down the nuclear power plant in Louisa County, Va, right near the epicenter. I also heard that the damage isn't TOO bad in Louisa, but a few homes are pretty badly damaged, cracks all the way up the sides of some houses, and a wall somewhere collapsed.

Let me know if you guys learn anything else.

[n00b 0f l337]

Felt it up in NYC on long island, about a minute of light minor shaking.

Got us out of lecture into the wonderful sun though

Hope all is well

[Judaeus Apella]

Well aside from some major losses in a few grocery stores, who's isles are now covered in soda, ketchup, and beer, nothing bad.... so far. The cell towers were so overloaded I had to wait several minutes for a call to go through to check on my parents, after trying about ten times. I'm really glad it was just a small earthquake. If it was higher than 7 or more, the land our house is on would collapse. We live on the edge of some wetlands, and you only have to dig a couple feet before you hit a lot of water. So what that means is in the event of a serious earthquake, the water would rise to the surface, the top soil would sink and our house would sink with it. Oo Yeah, I wasn't happy about that when I found out. Thank gawd for home insurance! Wait... does it even cover that!? Crap, I better check.

[Judaeus Apella]

We just had a forth aftershock an hour or so ago somewhere in the high 4's. Probably around 4.6. They seem to be getting stronger.... its weird!