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Earth Quakes In Washington

08-23-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell

Well, one more unique event in a year of unique natural events. Washington, D. C., has experienced a 5.9 earthquake. The funniest thing about it was the fact that MSNBC was broadcasting live from their Washington bureau when it hit, on a commercial break and suddenly Andrea Mitchell was replaced by Tamron Hall. Mitchell was being evacuated in the middle of interviewing Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.

The epicenter was 4 miles from Mineral, and 4 miles from Louisa, Virginia, about 41 miles northwest of Richmond, 85 miles southwest of Washington. The quake was felt in New York City and as far away as Detroit and Windsor, Canada. There are no reports of injuries or damage from the major cities, but reports still have to be received from the town immediately around the epicenter. It set off alarms at nuclear plants in Virginia, and one plant automatically shut down, but there were no disruptions of electrical service or damage to the plants.

Amtrak is inspecting tracks and trains and shut down service while they make sure the tracks were not disturbed, and inspecting tunnels and bridges. The Washington-New York corridor is one of Amtrak’s most heavily used.

MSNBC is showing a video, one of those local television site-cams that overlook a city, that shows the National Cathedral bouncing up and down like Rush Limbaugh at a Republican event. It was the camera that was bouncing, not the Cathedral, but it gives one a good idea of what they felt in Washington. All the federal buildings were evacuated, as was NBC’s Washington office building.

In the meantime, state emergency services along the southern East Coast are broadcasting website addresses for hurricane evacuations as Hurricane Irene screams towards the Carolinas. It is currently projected to skirt the Florida and Georgia coastlines and make landfall in the Carolinas. Should it swing slightly east, it will rage just off-shore along the entire east coast and might make landfall at any point from Virginia to the Canadian Maritimes.

Those who believe in the Mayan 2012 prediction would say that the male Earth is having a rolling temper tantrum about being usurped by the female Earth next year and we can expect another four months of extraordinary weather and natural disasters.

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• USGS: Colorado experiences largest quake in almost 40 years (cnn.com)
• 6.5 quake hits northeastern Japan – Washington Post (news.google.com)
• Magnitude 7.5 quake hits Vanuatu in Pacific: USGS – Reuters (news.google.com)