أبو حيدر
08-24-2011, 03:41 AM
shaken by earthquake, but no damage done
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
The Record
Print (java******:;) | E-mail (java******:;)
WASHINGTON D.C. — The nation’s capital was shaken, but not rattled, by the quake, as workers ordered to evacuate government offices were able to enjoy an unseasonably cool and dry afternoon while tourists tried to figure out what to do when monuments and museums were closed.
http://media.northjersey.com/images/300*232/082311_dc_dngrm.jpg (http://media.northjersey.com/images/082311_dc_dngrm.jpg) AP PHOTO
Passengers crowd the platform as they wait for a commuter train to arrive at Union Station after an earthquake in Washington area, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011.
“I guess we’re just going to hang,” a mom could be heard telling two boys, one wearing a hat the other a T-shirt reading “Memphis.”
Veterans of earthquakes were enjoying their superiority.
“They’re all sitting under the trees, really old trees,” a man standing in the sun could be heard saying, loudly, into his cellphone in Lafayette Park, where many workers from surrounding federal buildings had gathered. “Like they won’t fall down in an aftershock.”
Bart Lewis, who recently retired as fire chief in the City of Orange, Calif., was belittling the capital’s reaction to a 5.9-maginitude quake.
He’d been riding with his family on the subway when the quake hit. The train pulled into L’Enfant Plaza and all passengers were told to evacuate.
“A 5.9 will get your attention, but it’s not going to cause any damage,” he said as he walked past the White House, about a dozen blocks away. “Here you’ve got police and fire running all over the place, people running out of buildings. We would have pulled the trucks out and made sure they were ready for aftershocks, but that would be about all.”
Authorities briefly closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, and a helicopter was seen circling the Washington Monument in airspace normally restricted to the arrival and departure of the president. But the helicopter was gone and Reagan-National Airport, which juts out into the Potomac River, had resumed its flights by 3:15 p.m.
The U.S. Park Police reported no obvious damage to monuments, but a spire fell from one of the towers of the National Cathedral, according to the Washington Post.
Some people thought the quake was part of the normal Washington experience.
Hans Erdbrink, a tourist from Amsterdam, was in the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum watching an Imax movie about the history of flight.
“They had a shot of a plane going over Niagara Falls and the chairs started shaking. I thought, what an effect. Then it stopped, and I wondered why they didn’t use it during other parts of the movie,” he said.
A couple from Columbus, Ohio, Chris Purtee and Teresa Bird, had just begun exploring the Smithsonian Castle. Purtee was staring at the barrel-vaulted ceiling and suddenly, “You could see everything waving. The walls, the ceiling, they were all waving.”
Bird was looking at the jewelry in the gift shop and only noticed the case rattle a bit.
“Then I saw every**** start running and I said, ‘This isn’t good.’”
Their main concern, and that of many others in the city, was getting back to their hotel. The metro system did resume running trains, but only at 15 mph while inspectors checked tracks for damage. That led to crowds at stations, and long lines at bus stops.
E-mail: [email protected] Blog: northjersey.com/herbjackson
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
The Record
Print (java******:;) | E-mail (java******:;)
WASHINGTON D.C. — The nation’s capital was shaken, but not rattled, by the quake, as workers ordered to evacuate government offices were able to enjoy an unseasonably cool and dry afternoon while tourists tried to figure out what to do when monuments and museums were closed.
http://media.northjersey.com/images/300*232/082311_dc_dngrm.jpg (http://media.northjersey.com/images/082311_dc_dngrm.jpg) AP PHOTO
Passengers crowd the platform as they wait for a commuter train to arrive at Union Station after an earthquake in Washington area, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011.
“I guess we’re just going to hang,” a mom could be heard telling two boys, one wearing a hat the other a T-shirt reading “Memphis.”
Veterans of earthquakes were enjoying their superiority.
“They’re all sitting under the trees, really old trees,” a man standing in the sun could be heard saying, loudly, into his cellphone in Lafayette Park, where many workers from surrounding federal buildings had gathered. “Like they won’t fall down in an aftershock.”
Bart Lewis, who recently retired as fire chief in the City of Orange, Calif., was belittling the capital’s reaction to a 5.9-maginitude quake.
He’d been riding with his family on the subway when the quake hit. The train pulled into L’Enfant Plaza and all passengers were told to evacuate.
“A 5.9 will get your attention, but it’s not going to cause any damage,” he said as he walked past the White House, about a dozen blocks away. “Here you’ve got police and fire running all over the place, people running out of buildings. We would have pulled the trucks out and made sure they were ready for aftershocks, but that would be about all.”
Authorities briefly closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, and a helicopter was seen circling the Washington Monument in airspace normally restricted to the arrival and departure of the president. But the helicopter was gone and Reagan-National Airport, which juts out into the Potomac River, had resumed its flights by 3:15 p.m.
The U.S. Park Police reported no obvious damage to monuments, but a spire fell from one of the towers of the National Cathedral, according to the Washington Post.
Some people thought the quake was part of the normal Washington experience.
Hans Erdbrink, a tourist from Amsterdam, was in the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum watching an Imax movie about the history of flight.
“They had a shot of a plane going over Niagara Falls and the chairs started shaking. I thought, what an effect. Then it stopped, and I wondered why they didn’t use it during other parts of the movie,” he said.
A couple from Columbus, Ohio, Chris Purtee and Teresa Bird, had just begun exploring the Smithsonian Castle. Purtee was staring at the barrel-vaulted ceiling and suddenly, “You could see everything waving. The walls, the ceiling, they were all waving.”
Bird was looking at the jewelry in the gift shop and only noticed the case rattle a bit.
“Then I saw every**** start running and I said, ‘This isn’t good.’”
Their main concern, and that of many others in the city, was getting back to their hotel. The metro system did resume running trains, but only at 15 mph while inspectors checked tracks for damage. That led to crowds at stations, and long lines at bus stops.
E-mail: [email protected] Blog: northjersey.com/herbjackson