5.9 quake hits Virginia/D.C.; 5.3 strikes Colorado, New Mexico

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_18739820

PAIR OF RATTLERS: 5.8 quake hits W.Va.; 5.3 strikes Colorado, New Mexico
By The Associated Press
Posted: 08/23/2011 11:06:39 AM PDT
Updated: 08/23/2011 11:18:09 AM PDT

WASHINGTON - A 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island and New York City.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was 3.7 miles deep. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. The quake was in Mineral, Va., in Louisa County.

Meanwhile, the strongest earthquake to strike Colorado in more than 40 years shook awake hundreds of people, toppled groceries off shelves and caused minor damage to homes in the southern part of the state and in northern New Mexico.
No injuries were reported as aftershocks continued Tuesday.
"Here we go again, there's another one starting. We got to get out of here," said Garry Ringo, owner of Ringo's Super Trading Post in the small town of Segundo, Colo., as bottles on shelves rattled in the background during an interview with The Associated Press.

Ringo estimated he lost thousands of dollars' worth of liquor and soda.

The magnitude 5.3 quake hit at 11:46 p.m. MDT Monday about nine miles southwest of Trinidad, or 180 miles south of Denver, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden. It had an estimated depth of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) and was felt in a relatively large area of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.

Las Animas County Sheriff Jim Casias said Colorado authorities were assessing damage and so far had reported a porch collapse and a partially collapsed roof. No injuries had been reported, he said.

"As I had one lady tell me, `Sheriff, maybe the world's coming to an end.' All I mentioned to her is that someday it will," Casias said.

Dozens of residents in Trinidad, a town of 9,000 people, and in northern New Mexico called the USGS to report the shaking. Others called from Colorado Springs, Colo., about 130 miles north of the epicenter, said geophysicist Shengzao Chen.

Minor aftershocks continued Tuesday in the relatively sparsely populated area that the USGS says is not known for major quakes or active faults. Theresa James, manager of Ringo's Super Trading Post, said a small swarm lasting three days hit the area last summer. Segundo is a former coal mining town of about 100 people.

USGS geophysicist Jessica Sigala said Monday's earthquake damaged chimneys, cracked walls and knocked items off shelves.

Minor rockslides were reported on Colorado Highway 12 and Interstate 25, but both highways remained open, a Las Animas County Sheriff's Office dispatcher said Tuesday.

The dispatcher, who would only give her first name as Kristina, said she was working when the earthquake hit near midnight.

"Everything was shaking, but we had no power loss," she said.

"I thought maybe a car had hit my house," said 70-year-old Trinidad resident Nadine Baca. "Then I called my son and he said it was the third (quake) today."

Cathy Gutierrez of Raton, N.M., about 20 miles south of Trinidad, told The Associated Press Tuesday that she felt two earthquakes, one around 5:30 p.m. Monday and the big earthquake just before midnight.

"My bed shook with all my pictures. It just went back and forth. I thought someone hit my house. I ran outside. We've had some before (earthquakes), but never this strong," Gutierrez said. "It was a very scary feeling."

Ron Thompson, mine manager with New Elk Mine about 30 miles west of Trinidad, said coal miners 300 to 800 feet underground didn't feel anything but crews above ground and at the company office in Trinidad, where he was at the time, did.

"Not real exciting, but it got your attention," he said of the shallow quake.

The quake was the largest in Colorado since a magnitude-5.3 temblor was recorded in Denver's northern suburbs in 1967, said Paul Earle of the USGS.

Sigala said the area occasionally has swarms of earthquakes, some lasting days or weeks, but Monday's temblor was unusual.
"A 5.3 is big for Colorado," she said.

About a dozen smaller temblors were recorded in the area in August and September 2001, Sigala said.

She said some people blamed that swarm on oil drilling in the area but that later studies proved those fears unfounded.

Colorado is no stranger to earthquakes, but most are small and go unnoticed.

According to the USGS, an earthquake in 1882 was the first to cause damage in Denver and is believed to be the largest recorded in the state.

That quake was believed to be centered in the Front Range near what is now Rocky Mountain National Park. Its magnitude was estimated to be about 6.6 on the Richter scale. It was felt as far away as Salina, Kansas, and Salt Lake City.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_18739820

http://news.yahoo.com/quake-rocks-washington-area-felt-east-coast-181550612.html

Quake rocks Washington area, felt on East Coast
Associated Press
Tuesday 23 August 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island, New York City and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where President Barack Obama is vacationing.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was half a mile deep. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

It was centered near Louisa, Va., which is northwest of Richmond and south of Washington.

Obama and many of the nation's leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. EDT. The shaking was felt on the Martha's Vineyard golf course as Obama was just starting a round.

The East Coast gets earthquakes, but usually smaller ones and is less prepared than California or Alaska for shaking.
At Reagan National Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell during a few seconds of shaking. Authorities announced it was an earthquake and all flights were put on hold.

At the Pentagon in northern Virginia, a low rumbling built and built to the point that the building was shaking. People ran into the corridors of the government's biggest building and as the shaking continued there were shouts of "Evacuate! Evacuate!"

In New York, the 26-story federal courthouse in lower Manhattan began swaying and hundreds of people were seen leaving the building. Court officers weren't letting people back in.

The quake came a day after an earthquake in Colorado toppled groceries off shelves and caused minor damage to homes in the southern part of the state and in northern New Mexico. No injuries were reported as aftershocks continued Tuesday.

In Charleston, W.Va., hundreds of workers left the state Capitol building and employees at other downtown office buildings were asked to leave temporarily.

"The whole building shook," said Jennifer Bundy, a spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court. "You could feel two different shakes. Everybody just kind of came out on their own."

In Ohio, where office buildings swayed in Columbus and Cincinnati and the press box at the Cleveland Indians' Progressive Field shook. At least one building near the Statehouse was evacuated in downtown Columbus.

In downtown Baltimore, the quake sent office workers into the streets, where lamp posts swayed slightly as they called family and friends to check in.

Social media site Twitter lit up with reports of the earthquake from people using the site up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard.

"People pouring out of buildings and onto the sidewalks and Into Farragut Park in downtown DC...," tweeted Republican strategist Kevin Madden.

"did you feel earthquake in ny? It started in richmond va!" tweeted Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill tweeted that her staff in Washington was in an "emergency location. Hope everyone is ok."

John Gurlach, air traffic controller at the Morgantown Municipal Airport was in a 40-foot-tall tower when the earth trembled.

"There were two of us looking at each other saying, 'What's that?'" he said, even as a commuter plane was landing. "It was noticeably shaking. It felt like a B-52 unloading."

Immediately, the phone rang from the nearest airport in Clarksburg, and a computer began spitting out green strips of paper — alerts from other airports in New York and Washington issuing ground stops "due to earthquake."

http://news.yahoo.com/quake-rocks-washington-area-felt-east-coast-181550612.html

We felt it! I knew it was an earthquake as soon as I heard that ominous grumbling sound. Thank the Lord it wasn't anything really bad.

I felt it, too! I'm glad it wasn't very long, though! I'm about two hours from it's epicenter (the one in VA, that is).

by KrispyKrittr...One thing an earthquakes does is it brings out all the "wannabe prophets"!
Krispy

Well that's how the "wannabe prophets" make their "Profit"

One thing an earthquakes does is it brings out all the "wannabe prophets"!

Hahaa... Right on!

2 things came to mind when I heard about this eartquake. First I wondered who will come out and declare this to be some kind of judgment of God?

The other thing is that is this just part of the tectonics plates moving that don't normally move very much?

It also makes me think that when Jesus died there was a great earthquake and the dead rose. Do earthquakes happen much around Israel? I don't know but it is something to think about.

And now a hurricane is threatening the east coast...

I don't claim to be a prophet and I can't say that the recent earthquakes (or any other natural disasters) are judgments from God. But I do think, however, that there is also danger on the other side - being flippant about the possibility.

Here's what I do know: There are far too many events going on around the world for any of this to be random.

- The uptick in serious earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, tornados, and every manner of natural disasters.

- Japan's nuclear meltdown due to the earthquake and tsunami.

- Norway's evil attack on children.

- The debt crises around the world, including whole countries needing bailouts. Not to mention

- Massive unrest, revolutions and fears in the Middle East.

- Israel facing a nuclear Iran who declares their Mahdi is near that war with Israel will precede his coming.

-Recent riots in London. Flash mob violence in the US.

These are just a mere fraction of what's been going on. I'm not going to play with semantics over these are "warnings," "judgments" or anything else. The fact of the matter is, God is trying to get our attention. He's giving people the chance to recognize Him, repent and turn to Him. THIS is the important message in all of this, not who is being punished or judged or who is going to come out claiming this is judgment.

Haggai said this was coming in chapter 2:6-7: “For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations.

And again in verses 20-21: "I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.”

And we're all familiar with Hebrews 12:25-27 by now, "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain."

The point is, God is shaking things up - shaking people up - so they'll let go of the things that give them false peace. He's shaking up the folly of the governments of the world. He's doing all this by even shaking the world itself!

His goal? To get people to turn from their sins, accept and reverence Him as their God and Savior.

by ginnyrose on 2011/8/23 19:05:33

And now a hurricane is threatening the east coast...

___________

Yes all along the east coast and there are many brothers and sisters in Christ in these areas so please be praying.
rdg

Search For Hidden Damage After East Coast Quake
by The Associated Press

text size A A A MINERAL, Va. August 24, 2011, 09:13 am ET
Office buildings, schools and towering landmarks were being inspected Wednesday for hidden structural flaws a day after initial checks turned up little damage from a rare East Coast earthquake.

Public schools and a handful of government buildings in Washington remained closed for further assessment, and engineers were taking a closer look at cracks in the Washington Monument and broken capstones at the National Cathedral. Some residents of D.C. suburbs were staying in shelters because of structural concerns at their apartment buildings.

Further south, Tuesday's 5.8-magnitude quake also shattered windows and wrecked grocery stores near its Virginia epicenter. There were no known deaths or serious injuries.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the quake serves as a reminder for residents to be prepared.

"We talk about hurricanes this time of year, but we forget that A: earthquakes don't have a season and B: they are not just a western hazard," FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said in an interview Wednesday on ABC's Good Morning America.

When the quake struck, many feared terrorism in New York and Washington — places where nerves are raw as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaches. The tremblor sent many pouring from high-rises like the Empire State Building.

"I ran down all 60 flights," accounting office worker Caitlin Trupiano said. "I wasn't waiting for the elevator."

Chris Kardian, working in his garage in suburban Richmond, Va., not far from the epicenter, opted for the more prosaic and plausible: He blamed the shaking on two of his children in the overhead playroom.

"I just thought they were running around and being really loud," he said. "After about 15 seconds, it didn't stop and I thought, `I don't have that many kids in the house!'"

The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and jarred as many as 12 million people. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was centered 40 miles northwest of Richmond in Mineral.

The U.S. Park Service evacuated and closed all monuments and memorials along the National Mall. The Pentagon, the White House, the Capitol and federal agencies in and around Washington were evacuated. Roads out of the city were clogged with commuters headed home.

Stressed-out D.C. mother of four Marion Babcock, who spent two hours traffic instead of her normal 25 minutes, did the only sensible thing for her frazzled, frightened kids: "I treated their post-traumatic stress with copious amounts of chocolate mint and cookie dough ice cream."

Between cell phones and social networks, news of the quake seemed to travel faster than the temblor itself.

Jenna Scanlon of Floral Park, N.Y., ended a phone call with someone in McLean, Va., and announced to her office colleagues there had been an earthquake. Seconds later, 7 World Trade Center began to shake.

The scope of the damage — or lack of — also quickly became clear on social networks. Instead of collapsed freeways, people posted images of toppled lawn chairs and yogurt cups, broken Bobbleheads, picture frames askew on walls.

On Facebook, people joked with posts such as "S&P has downgraded earthquake to a 2.0," a swipe at the rating agency that recently lowered the federal government's creditworthiness. Another suggested New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a large man, had just "jumped into" the presidential race.

A 5.8-magnitude quake releases as much energy as almost eight kilotons of TNT, about half the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.

Still, those along the West Coast who are used to the earth moving couldn't help but take a jab or two.

"Really all this excitement over a 5.8 quake??? Come on East Coast, we have those for breakfast out here!!!!" wrote Dennis Miller, a lifelong California resident whose Pleasanton home sits on a fault line.

A 5.8, he said, wouldn't even wake him from his sleep.

"We were laughing," said 26-year-old San Francisco resident Stellamarie Hall, "but we definitely understand that New York and certain metropolitan areas are not designed around earthquakes."

The earthquake that devastated Japan released more than 60,000 times more energy than Tuesday's, but there was real damage. At the majestic Washington National Cathedral, at least three of the four top stones on the central tower fell off, and cracks appeared in the flying buttresses at the cathedral's east end, the oldest part of the structure. The top of the Washington Monument has a crack.

Ceiling tiles fell to the floor at Reagan National Airport. The gothic-style Smithsonian Castle, built in 1857, had minor cracks and broken glass. And vigorous shaking left a crack and hole in the ceiling at historic Union Station when a chunk of plaster fell near the main entrance.

The steeple and bell tower at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Baltimore were badly damaged, and the building was closed as a precaution.

In West Virginia, environmental regulators sent engineers to inspect massive coal slurry dams that could wipe out entire communities if they were to fail and release billions of gallons of wastewater.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Valley Authority said that checks of its dams and nuclear plants in several states had turned up no problems.

Amtrak said trains along the Northeast Corridor between Baltimore and Washington were operating at reduced speeds and crews were inspecting stations and railroad infrastructure before returning to normal.

Even those who knew what was happening had braced for worse, some remembering the Indian Ocean quake that triggered a tsunami and a nuclear disaster in Japan.

"I knew it was an earthquake, but my first thought was, `Oh my God, something's going to happen to the power plant," said 21-year-old Whitney Thacker in Mineral, Va., a town near the epicenter where the sidewalks were littered with fallen stones, masonry and broken glass. "It was scary."

Dominion Virginia Power shut down its two-reactor nuclear power plant within 10 miles of the quake's epicenter, but said there was no evidence of any damage to the decades-old North Anna Power Station.

In a news release, the utility company said off-site power to the nuclear plant was restored Tuesday night and it was no longer relying on backup generators. The utility didn't say when the plant's two reactors would be restarted.

By the standards of the West Coast, where earthquakes are much more common, the Virginia quake was mild. Since 1900, there have been 40 of magnitude 5.8 or greater in California alone.

But quakes in the East tend to be felt across a much broader area, the waves traveling "pretty happily out for miles," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough.

The last quake of equal power to strike the East Coast was in New York in 1944. The largest East Coast quake on record was a 7.3 that hit South Carolina in 1886.

The fear in some places was real.

Michael Leman had been mowing a neighbor's lawn in Mineral when bricks began falling from a chimney and the earth heaved a large propane tank about a foot off the ground.

"I thought that tank was about to explode," he said, "and I ran for dear life."

———

I hope I am not hijacking this thread by posting this. Someone posted this and it appeared on my Facebook page. It caused me think and ask if christians are really shallow or what is the meaning behind this.
The passage is below

New King James Version (NKJV)
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,[a] and earthquakes in various places

What I am seeing here is something that has taken place throughout written history. I know this verse was probably published in light of the earthquake we just had but yet, is this rightly using the Bible? Why do you think this verse was place in its place in the first place?
For what purpose does it serve us if these things have been happening throughout recorded history and why should we use this verse for anything constructive today>

Yes the media has really gone wild, they get folks in the panic mode about Hurricanes as soon as it starts raining off the coast of Africa, and the Weather channel really takes advantage of the Hurricanes, they turn up the hype 80%. I agree, we must use our wisdom to help us prepare for national disasters of all kinds, but the scare tactics that the media employ, could possibly be defined as humorous. It's all about attracting attention during possible disasters, and cranking up the commercials during the shows to make more money, and brother do they crank up the commercials.

What percentage of the past 2000 years have they been keeping records of earthquakes? 10%? so are we going to judge what we are seeing now on 10% of these? What if they had 50 earth quakes of a magnitude of 7.5 or more in 900 AD? how would we know? how do we compare? and there is no possible way for anyone to know if the frequency of the quakes are increasing,increasing compared to what? as we know it because of the records we have? There is just not enough evidence of the past 2000 years to compare it to today's times.