I never felt an earthquake that strong before.. or to be politically correct, the after-shock of one from Mineral, VA. I hear it reached as far as Michigan, NY, Massachusetts, and Canada and as south as North Carolina. 5.8-5.9 on the richter scale and 3.7 miles deep (shallow quake, feel more on surface) for a good 30-45 seconds.

I was in a meeting with clients on the 5th floor of my building in washington DC and we just sat there shocked and confused. What do we do? You never know what to do in these situations until it actually happens to you. Once the shaking stops, do we just continue with the meeting or evacuate the building? Tables, chairs, people, floor.. all clearly shaking. Is the floor going to collapse under my feet? Do I go under the table? People watch buildings outside of our windows swaying back and forth. Many of us are just shocked and questioning ourselves if this is really happening. Could it be an attack or is this an earthquake? What do we do?

Hopefully no one is hurt and buildings haven’t been damaged. My cellphone won’t make calls or send texts.

“As we said earlier, earthquakes, especially this strong, are rare in the area. According to the USGS, “the largest damaging earthquake (magnitude 4.8) in the seismic zone occurred in 1875. Smaller earthquakes that cause little or no damage are felt each year or two.” -NPR