5.9 earthquake hits Virginia, jolts N.Y. and Carolinas

August 23, 2011

A magnitude-5.9 earthquake struck Virginia at about 1:50 p.m. (EDT), the U.S. Geological Survey reported Tuesday. Tremors were felt in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee and the Carolinas.

In New York City, some buildings were evacuated, and residents poured out of apartment buildings. "What happened?!" one young woman, clutching her large black cat, asked as she rushed onto the street. The woman had been in her seventh-floor apartment in Brooklyn when the brick building began shaking and swaying.

The Associated Press said the Pentagon was being evacuated. The quake also interrupted a news conference that was about to be held by the New York district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., about the dropping of charges against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Vance was about to begin speaking to a room full of reporters, on the eighth floor of a building, when the shaking began. the rest

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Added:
Tweets from D.C. reached NYC nearly 30 sec. before the Earthquake was felt there.