Earthquake???...At lunch?

Well, this is a first for this northern Yankee.... I got to experience my first earthquake!! During lunch, at work!

Carol and I were eating lunch and getting ready to go back to work, when I realized the table, chair, BUILDING were swaying back and forth! Along with me!! Then we heard the train (within 50' of our building), but I've felt the train before, many times. When the train rumbles through, the floor vibrates in the lab (Century Color Labs). My feet WERE NOT RUMBLING! And the thin venetian blinds in the window behind me were swaying back and forth, clinking against the wall frame. We looked at each other and said..."that's NOT the train. That's an earthquake!!" We no sooner said it, then it seemed to dissapate (maybe lasted 15 seconds or so, but felt like a few minutes). We got up to see what the rest of the employees in the lab had felt, and I called the local TV station to ask to talk to the weather dept. She asked if it was about the earthquake and I (surprised!!) said, "Yeah! We felt it during lunch." She asked where I was and I informed her, "East Hartford" and she said they were getting more info and they'd have more to report shortly.

The epicenter of this 5.8 (richter scale) earthquake was Mineral, VA, but I'd heard they evacuated the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, (I'm sure shades of panic from 9-11-11, after all the 10th anniversary of 9-11 is soon upon us). They shut down airports all over the east coast and even evacuated tall buildings in NYC; New Haven, CT; Hartford, CT. It was felt all the way in Boston. I sent a text message to Leslie (who works in Boston), but didn't hear anything back. I know she has class (law school) on Mon, Tues, Thurs, so maybe she was without her cell phone on.

Wow.... my first (and probably only) earthquake. Now that it's over, it was kind of unsettling, but exciting. Especially, since it was just rocking and rolling... nothing like a huge disruptive shift of ground and building. (Thank you God.)