Earthquake shakes eastern US, parts of Canada

August 23, 2011

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 struck near Washington, DC Tuesday afternoon. The epicenter was in a small town by the name of Mineral in Virginia.
As of 3:30 p.m. there had been no reports of injuries throughout Virginia.
According to the United States Park Police, all national monuments and parks in Washington were “stable but closed” as of 3 p.m. Tuesday.
The Pentagon was also evacuated “when the building began shaking rather violently, hundreds of people began streaming out, because many people thought that the building was under attack,” according to CNN’s Barbara Starr, who was standing in the Pentagon’s press office when the roof began to shake.
In New York, thousands of people went running out onto the streets as evacuation procedures put into place after September 11 attacks were quickly activated.
Some offices chose to evacuate in Toronto for precautionary reasons, but no serious damage was reported.
Two buildings were also evacuated in Fredericton, New Brunswick as the Centennial Building and New Brunswick Power Building were both emptied out after employees felt the effects of the earthquake.
In Montreal, reports surfaced saying that people felt the earthquake in the Dorval area, downtown Montreal and other places around the island.