Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 18:46:50

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake has struck the east coast of the United States at 01:51:04 PM (EDT) - Eastern Daylight (New York, Toronto) - 05:51AM this morning (NZ). The US Geological Survey reported that epicenter was located 1.5km below Mineral, VA but the tremor was felt 136km away in Washington DC and as far north as Toronto, Canada. There were no immediate reports of injury or significant damage in either Washington or New York although several buildings were evacuated.

Earthquake Felt in Washington DC

The Department of Defense reported that offices in the Pentagon were evacuated and a water pipe burst on the third floor of the building; engineers were able to stop the water leak. Officials gave the all-clear for staff to return after 15 minutes.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65114

ABC News reported that a number of major buildings were evacuated in Washington DC including Union Square train station and Capitol Hill.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/earthquake/east-coast-quake-nuclear-reactors-offline/story?id=14365268

CBS News reported no significant damage and emphasised how unusual such natural phenomena are in the region:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7377882n

Hear Connie Lawn’s report for Scoop here.

Quake Shuts Down Virginian Nuclear Power Plant

In Mineral, VA, The North Anna nuclear power plant, located a few miles from the epicenter, shut down its two reactors. Dominion Virginia Power, the owner and operator of the plant, reported no nuclear material has been released.

CNN report on North Anna power plant: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/08/23/virginia.quake.nuclear/index.html

Earthquake Media Disruption Video Footage

Hollywood Reporter published a number of videos of media offices being disrupted by the tremors across the east coast, from Philadelphia to New York, including the press conference on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/earthquake-videos-hit-web-dsk-226470

Virginia: Damage to Buildings

This amateur footage shows damage from much closer to the epicenter in Tyson’s Corner, VA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AnNlyDcySY

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Scoop

Scoop Independent News

Scoop is NZ's largest independent news source; respected widely in media, political, business and academic circles for being the place on the internet for publishing "what was really said", and for the quality of its analysis of issues.

CONTACT SCOOP

• Phone - 04 910 1844
• Facebook

• Twitter - @ScoopNZ
• YouTube