Well That Was Interesting...
August 26, 2011
A little rock and roll. I've got my ski legs back now.
I assume there was no real damage around any of the ski areas. Sis-in-law has a place at Wintergreen, so she's planning to drive down just to check. Likely just broken nick-nacks, etc
Bah! 0.3Gs at peak. You don't even need a helmet for that.
A lot of folks felt it here too. Some bricks fell from a forth story chimney, people on upper floors of some buildings said the building was swaying. I never felt a thing but I was at work. A lot of things shake and go boom there. I would have never noticed. I hope all you DC area folk are OK. News here said no major injuries there.
I felt it quite a bit. We're in one of those extended cube areas over a subfloor area for computer wiring, power wiring, phone lines, etc. My desk sometimes vibrates a bit if people walk by. So you can imagine what is was like during an earthquake. The good news was that I originally thought someone was clumsily moving some very heavy cart or doing some work on the floor; I did one of those prairie dog things and was about to curse someone out. Spent most of the quake being pissed at some imaginary person.
Something for people to consider. Does your homeowners/renters insurance cover earthquake damage? I guessing for most it is a no and you need an explicit rider, like flood insurance. I need to check my own policy. Not that you generally need it in our parts, but if you do get foundation damage to your house, that gets real expensive.
A number of buildings are closed in DC today for inspection, including Wash Monument.
I was in a dorm room at UVA yesterday helping youngest daughter unpack her stuff for start of first year of school there. We joked about whether an earthquake was a good omen on first day? I guess it is if you survive it
It was very noticeable to us, felt and sounded like a freight train passing nearby for about 15-20 secs, reminded me of the cheap motel near the RR tracks that I stayed in one night in SLC during ski trip there last Jan. This NY Times article talks about damage at Virginia epicenter including homeowner insurance issues.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/25mineral.html
Many of the structural engineers from my engineering firm are out inspecting public buidlings today. Yesterday evening we found some minor structural damage in a few public building.
Our office building rocked and rolled quite a bit. There was no questions that we were having an earthquake. It scared the living bejesus out of me.
Good point about our homeowners insurance.This is a real low risk area for earthquakes. Most structures around here I do not believe are designed for quake larger than 6 point zero. I will check with our structural engineers on that one.
It's amazing the things we take for granted. East coast earthquakes???? Well, there goes the theory that Virginia is one of the safest areas to live in. The only injuries I am aware of were some of the kids and teachers in Louisa County which was in school on tuesday.
On another note, Irene is having trouble making up her mind which way she wants to go. It would just be our luck that she decides to see if Virginia really is for lovers. I imagine that Andy is battening down the hatches and buying enough beer and bread and TP to last out the effects.
we are under a Hurricane Warning now & it's starting to sink in that I will be cleaning up a big mess soon
...
Used to root em all on & would sit out on my front porch hootin & hollering everytime a huge gust swept in till I realized that the beer drinking wasn't as fun without my cable TV & all the other comforts of home on due the power outage
Cat 3 will be interesting so i'll be stashing things..tying down stuff & parking boats ,cars & my New truck in what I hope are sheltered areas...I hope...
PS...we felt the earthquake here as well so I have been thru the alltime record flood (Floyd)..the alltime record Blizzard (24 inches in 24 hours)..& the shakies...NC has it all!
looks like 4 of the models have it going over my camp...(Yellow,black,blue..& a little to the right is the white..)..I'm betting it goes by to the east of me & the cape fear region though..BRING IT ON???!!..
http://icons-ecast.wunderground.com/data/images/at201109_modelThe above link changes with each model run..I was refering to the 5 pm run 8-25-11
Hey fish! I didn't know sand could shake. Man, take care if you are riding this thing out. They keep talking about up to a 15' storm surge. That would float a lot folks out of the Banks... Hope the thing dies down before landfall. Near Catagory 4 is a bit much.
Please be carefull and stay safe. I hope you come out unscathed!
