Locals Share Quake Stories

Colin Fish has felt earthquakes before.

The one that jostled South Jersey—and much of the rest of the Eastern Seaboard—Tuesday was no big deal for the Air Force serviceman after a tour in Afghanistan, one of the most geologically tumultuous regions in the world.

Fish said he was in his third-floor condominium in Mount Laurel when the shaking started just before 2 p.m.

“A couple pictures fell off the wall. I have an upright bass, on a really rickety stand. I had to hold that,” he said, taking a break from reading his book at the Barnes & Noble Cafe. “Afghanistan earthquakes are much worse. It’s a mountainous region. They happen all the time … We had one that lasted 20 minutes.”

The 5.8-magnitude quake that rumbled across the region Tuesday originated in Mineral, Va.—about 30 miles from Richmond—and lasted for several seconds or several minutes, depending on where you were. It caused minor damage and moderate inconvenience across the Philadelphia area and South Jersey. Planes were grounded, buildings cracked and others were evacuated, including the Moorestown Library, offices in Center City, and the Capitol and Pentagon in Washington, D.C. PATCO shut down for three hours.

The folks who fled the Moorestown Library were somewhat shaken, but mostly just confused.

“It was the oddest sensation I've ever been through,” said Kathy Carlyle, who was in the library with her four young sons when the shelves around her started shaking and creaking. “I turned around and noticed the whole place was shaking.”

Carlyle’s son Will, 10, was sitting at a table with his little brother, Aaron, 7.

“I told him to stop moving the table and I realized he wasn't moving the table. Then I saw the shelves were moving and I got a little nervous,” Will said.

Children’s librarian Jen Dunne and other library employees hustled patrons out of the building and they were more than willing to go.

About 40 people evacuated the library and the construction office on the second floor, where building inspector Adam Gee works. Gee was taking a coffee break on Main Street when he felt the earthquake.

“Everybody poured out of every building on Main Street,” said Gee. When he returned to his office, patrons and employees began to re-enter the library. That was at about 2:15 p.m.

Gee said he was not qualified to judge whether the building was structurally sound, but that people might have been reassured by the return of the building inspectors.

“It stopped shaking and everybody calmed down and life went back to normal,” he said. “Nobody officially said it was safe. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal.”

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Tuesday’s earthquake was almost as strong as the strongest recorded earthquake in Virginia, a magnitude 5.9, which occurred in May 1897. The strongest recorded earthquake to strike the East Coast was the 1886 Charleston, S.C., earthquake, which was about a magnitude 7.3.

“The earthquake was felt so widely because it was a shallow earthquake, and geologic conditions in the eastern U.S. allow the effects of earthquakes to propagate and spread much more efficiently than in the western United States,” the USGS reported.

Several other Moorestonians chimed in via email, the Patch main site and Facebook to describe their experiences:

• “It was a scary moment! I work on the second floor of a building and I was standing at the time and the whole building was moving back and forth.” — Holly Stratton via Facebook

• “I was in a building on 2nd St. in Moorestown. At first I thought it was the train going by until the entire building began to sway. We went outside and saw cars parked on the street almost bouncing and heard one car alarm going off. Thankfully no one was hurt.” — Robert Scarpa via Moorestown Patch

• “The crew that’s working in my new kitchen addition flew in every direction. They thought the house was going to fall on them. This is so exciting! But I’ve been in really BIG ones and they’re not fun.” — Carmen Herrera von Wrangell via Facebook

• “I spent a couple years living in California. I knew what it was as soon as I felt it. I got in touch with the police. I asked if there was any damage and they said ‘not that we know of.’ They did survey the town.” — Mayor John Button

• “We live on West Central between Dawson and Church … Felt a large shake, much vibration and the house moved … I initially thought a tree had come down on our house and the house was damaged … Sent the kids to basement while I investigated.” — Amy Darlington via email

• “On Main and Chester, second floor of a very old brick building—all we wanted to do was get out. We thought the building was going to collapse.” — Lynne Schill via Facebook

Emma Lee contributed to this report.