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Mineral Virginia Louisa County

August 23, 2011 by · Comments Off on Mineral Virginia Louisa County 

Mineral Virginia Louisa CountyMineral Virginia Louisa County, Virginia 5.9 earthquake was felt in Washington, New York and North Carolina this afternoon. Buildings swayed, and damage reports began to arrive in a few minutes from the largest earthquake in Virginia in more than a century.

The earthquake struck at 1:51 pm Virginia, and authorities said the epicenter appeared to be in Louisa County, about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The epicenter was located near Dominion Virginia Power North Anna nuclear plant, where the quake knocked out power, but both nuclear units were closed without incident and no damage was evident, Dominion said.

“We lost in the place of power, but all diesel generators are underway,” Dominion spokesman Richard Zuercher said 30 minutes after the quake. “Everything seems to be working very well.”

Zuercher said the North Anna operators prepared to manually shut down the units after the earthquake when the central system automatically turns operating the two units.

The quake _ the largest in Virginia since May 5, 1897, according to the U.S. Geological Survey _ Shook buildings and employees were ordered out through Richmond and other cities in Virginia. Within minutes, police began receiving calls Richmond relating to property damage.

These calls included a possible collapse of the stairs along the North First Street downtown, a possible collapse of the wall along East Broad Street in the East End of town and a wall collapse is possible in a structure that Hioaks along the way in South Richmond _ as well as numerous reports of gas leaks.

Although many of the calls were unfounded, kept emergency crews busy all affternoon.

Authorities report no major damage is known or wounded in the counties of Amelia, Charles, Cumberland, Goochland, King and Queen, New Kent and Powhatan and the cities of St. Petersburg Heights, Hopewell and Colonial.

William Harper, an employee with the town of Mineral Louisa County, reported “some damage to buildings” in the municipal offices, where telephones were ringing constantly.

The Chesterfield County office of the fire department said no one was injured and “calls to a minimum” for emergency services, but a significant number of calls asking what had happened. Officials said the building if someone has appeared in good condition and no obvious risk _ the smell of gas, exposed wires or broken pipes _ then it was OK to go back inside.

Henrico County reported no confirmed cases of serious damage from the quake. “Right now, we have no reports of significant structural damage,” said Henrico police Lt. Eric D. Owens.

However, Owens asked that anyone who experienced significant damage Henrico call (804) 501-7809.

Ninety minutes after the quake, officials in Richmond said there were no signs of damage to the infrastructure of the city.

Kevin Hall, spokesman for the U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner said the Senate Russell Office Building in Washington, “influenced” in the earthquake. The staff was evacuated there; Hall said she felt the staff at Abingdon in southwest Virginia and Warner was attending an event in Culpeper, too.

President Barack Obama and many of the nation’s leaders were out of town on vacation in August, when the quake struck. The earthquake was felt in the golf Martha’s Vineyard and Obama had just begun a round.

The east coast earthquakes, but generally smaller and less prepared than California or Alaska to shake.

Reagan National Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell for a few seconds of shaking. The authorities said it was an earthquake and all flights were suspended.

At the Pentagon, in Virginia, a low noise integrated and built to the point that the building was shaking. People were running in the halls of the largest building in the government and the continuous agitation were shouts of “evacuate! Evacuate!”

In New York, the 26-story federal courthouse in Manhattan began rolling and hundreds of people were seen leaving the building. Court officials were not letting people back in.

The earthquake came a day after an earthquake in Colorado dropped food off the shelves and caused minor damage to homes in the southern part of the state and northern New Mexico. No injuries have been reported as replicas continued on Tuesday.

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

“The whole building shook,” said Jennifer Bundy, spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court. “You could feel different two shakes. Everyone just a little wine for his own.”

In Ohio, where office buildings swayed in Columbus and Cincinnati and hit the newsroom in the field of progressive Cleveland Indians. At least one building near the Legislature was evacuated in downtown Columbus.

In downtown Baltimore, the quake sent office workers in the street, where street lamps swayed a little, as they called friends and family to check in.

Social media site Twitter lit up with reports of the earthquake of people using the site up and down the U.S. east coast.

“People coming out of buildings and on sidewalks and in Farragut Park in downtown DC…” wrote Republican strategist Kevin Madden.

“That felt earthquake in NY? Started in richmond va,” wrote Arianna Huffington, president and editor in chief of the Huffington Post Media Group.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill Twitter staff in Washington was in an emergency location. “We hope all is well.”

John Gurlach, air traffic controller in the Morgantown Municipal Airport was in a tower 40 meters high, when the earth shook.

“There were two of us looking at each other saying, what is that?” He said, even as a passenger plane was landing. “It was remarkable agitation. It felt like a burst of B-52.”

Immediately, the phone rang from the nearest airport in Clarksburg, and a computer began spitting green strips of paper -. “After the quake” alerts from other airports in New York and Washington ground stops issued

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