Please when posting news like this put where it happened in your heading. That way you won't scare everyone so much. I'm glad to here that you're fine. I have relatives in Chesterfield and am glad to hear from Andy that all is well there.

As my friend Ron used to say, "Now you know how it feels!" You haven't seen anything though until you've watched your refrigerator "walk" across the floor and the glass in your windows undulate as we did here in the SF Bay area quake in 1989. Now that's an earthquake!

Glad that it was a relatively quiet one there and that everyone's ok.

I didn't even know there was a faultline in the Virginia area. I'd read though that there a lot of little know fault lines around the US, including one just outside the NYC.

They occasionally feel a little movement in our area but we're still waiting for the big one. We live just off the New Madrid fault which runs across S. Missouri, S. Illinois and NE Arkansas. Apparently the last time it hit (prior to major population), the Mississippi flowed backwards for 8 hours, windows shattered in Chicago and church bells rang in Philly. It left a giant lake though that's still here so that's a plus.

We can't wait...

I didn't feel it and neither did my co-workers. On the news last night, only the people transplanted from earthquake areas knew what was going on. No interruptions in any utility services or problems caused by it (yea!)

Sounds scary what Andy went through, don't even want to think about that 9.2 one in Alaska.

Isn't the scale based on a power of 10? So a 5.0 is 10 times stronger than a 4.0?

Hey - our fridge walked across the kitchen in the 89 Loma Prieta quake too. It hit my mom as she was trying to get to safety and gave her a hell of a bruise on her shoulder. We were living in Santa Cruz at the time, so we got hit pretty good - lost our chimney and had some pretty good cracks in the plaster, but thankfully no structural damage to the house.

Yeah, we got one here in DC (or, rather the same one)...so wierd...I didn't feel anything, and then when i got home and saw the news, thought it was a hoax. Go figure.

how weird. we had 2 earthquakes in Norman, Oklahoma yesterday! Just baby ones, 2.0., but still enough to be felt if you were paying attention!

Dear andy,
Having grown up in San Francisco and attended public elementary schools, I benefited from the earthquake-safety training sessions which were conducted almost as frequently as fire drills during the school year. Two things really stayed with me:
First, get AWAY from the windows. You can't tell whether glass will shatter to the inside or the outside.
Second, unless you are in the countryside with no other houses adjacent, don't run outside. I know it's the first most natural panic reaction, but if you are in, say, downtown San Francisco, there will be glass flying from buildings (see above) as well as bricks, etc. A friend of mine was walking down Montgomery Street in San Fran when the Loma Prieta happened. Several loose bricks hit her from the Mills Building (an old building in the Financial District). Fortunately , someone pulled her into a car and was able to take her to safety.
Anyway, dive under a heavy table, or stand in a interior doorway and brace yourself - those are two relatively safe places to ride out the quake.

Thanks for the heads up...

We normally do not get Earthquake advice here in Virginia...SO I have filed away your advice and hope I never have to use it again!!

welcome to my world!