Here's my earthquake report for ST search posterity.
Posted by
Max
Aug 23 '11, 14:45
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I've worked on the top floor of a 12 story building across the park from the White House since the late 90s, so unusual noises have gotten my attention pretty quickly. About five or six years ago we had tropical storm weather rush through and buffet the building during work hours, which was fine. This felt different.
The first tremor was light enough that I could have dismissed it as construction in another building on our block, but the big tremor made the building shake in a way that made it feel "loose" and since it felt like it was getting stronger faster I started to seriously doubt that the building would take it. (the first thought that came to mind was that something was exploding outside. I've never experienced an earthquake before).
I was already getting out of my chair as I was hitting Enter on my post to ST. Grabbed my keys/phone/wallet and walked out of my office, saw the interns just sitting there frozen and said "Everybody out."
We headed down the stairs and got outside, where it looked like all the buildings in the area had been evacuated. One bank alarm was ringing. My boss, who'd just returned today from a 3 week vacation, must have been shaken; she told us not to go back into the building, got her car out of the garage, and zoomed away.
Everyone around my building was relaxed and chatting for the next ten minutes trying to get information. Internet access worked and texts got through but phone networks were down. A coworker who had been walking outside at the time came up and told us that there were women coming out of a building saying "If the Lord wants to take me now, I'm ready!" so not everyone was sane.
It sounded like a couple coworkers were going to get a beer. The interns were confused about not being able to go back in the building to work, but as I pointed out, everyone in DC was out of their office now and not answering phones, so... I had driven in and parked on the street close by, and a coworker needed to get home to get his kids from daycare, so I gave him a ride.
Traffic in DC was just as heavy as peak rush hour. We saw a guy standing on the sidewalk with a sign for "Arlington" and since that was where we were going I gave him a ride too. It took 45 minutes to get from inside DC to outside Alexandria, which was probably better than the metro which would have been overwhelmed with passengers and was running at 15mph limit.
Radio reported no major damage or injuries, though parts of the National Cathedral fell off. At the mall in Arlington a guy told me that when the quake happened he could see the buildings swaying.
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