Quake felt from White House to Obama’s holiday

A 5.9 MAGNITUDE earthquake centred in Virginia yesterday forced evacuations of all the monuments in Washington and rattled nerves from the southern state of Georgia to Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts island in the northeast where President Barack Obama is vacationing. No injuries were immediately reported.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was 800m deep and centred about 64km north-west of Richmond, the state capital of Virginia.

Tremors were felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated.

Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station in the same county as the epicentre were automatically taken off line by safety systems around the time of the earthquake, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The power plant is being from four emergency diesel generators, which are supplying power for critical safety equipment. Hannah said the agency was not immediately aware of any damage at nuclear power plants in the Southeast.

Obama and many of the nation’s leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck at 1.51pm EDT (17.51 GMT). The shaking was felt on the Martha’s Vineyard golf course as Obama was just starting a round.

At the Pentagon in northern Virginia, a low rumbling 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.”

The US Park Service evacuated and closed all National Mall monuments and memorials. 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.

In New York, the 26-storey federal courthouse in lower Manhattan began swaying and hundreds of people were seen leaving the building. Court officers were not letting people to go 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 yesterday.

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

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.