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5.8 Earthquake Rocks Virginia, Washington D.C., and Surrounding Areas

Aired August 23, 2011 - 13:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: If you were wondering why we're showing pictures of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., it's because we're getting reports of a 5.8 earthquake, magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Washington, D.C.

We understand that our CNN bureau has been evacuated. Our folks there felt it. They also felt it at CNN even in New York. So that's how far it traveled.

But once again, a 5.8 earthquake in Virginia being felt, of course, in the nation's capitol. We're working on getting some folks on the line with us from D.C. That is about what we know on it right now.

Wolf Blitzer from our bureau there in Washington, D.C. Is on the line with us.

Wolf, I hope you're doing OK and tell us what you felt.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (via telephone): Well, we felt an earthquake, it was really an earthquake. It was obvious.

It started sort of slow. I'm working in my office on the 8th floor of our CNN building right near Union Station right near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. All of a sudden the desk starts moving a little bit. Then you could feel a little bit of a tremor. But then it got pretty intense. I'm guessing it lasted for 20 or 25, maybe 30 seconds.

But you could feel that entire floor starting to shake and you could -- people didn't realize what was going on. Initially, I thought since they were doing construction up on the 11th there was pounding going on. But then having gone through earthquakes in Los Angeles, I could obviously tell that this was an earthquake. Now they're saying it was a 5.8.

It was, I'm told, southwest of Washington, D.C., but we clearly felt it here in the nation's capitol. As a matter of precaution, they're evacuating everyone from the building here at CNN. Just to get out.

But it looks like it's over. Unless there's major aftershocks, I think it's been resolved. I have no idea if there's been any significant damage or anything along those lines. But this is a very strong structure. You've been to the Washington bureau, the building here right near Capitol Hill. You can tell that the floor was definitely shaking and this was an earthquake.

It's sort of unusual in this area. I've lived here for a long time. I don't remember ever experiencing an earthquake in the Washington, D.C. area. But it's happened and I'm sure there's damage elsewhere as we go out into Virginia. Closer towards Richmond, I think that's where the epicenter apparently was.

KAYE: Apparently, Wolf, it hit, D.C., New York, Ohio. We're looking at pictures of the Washington bureau there on the upper right hand of your screen. Also the White House, which brings me to the point, Wolf, that I guess we should point out that President Obama is not at the White House, not in the D.C. area.

BLITZER: He's at Martha's Vineyard with his family on vacation. So he's nowhere near the D.C. Area. But you know, there's still a lot of people in Washington, D.C. So we're monitoring it. We have o our crews out there.

But they do say, officially, that it's about the epicenter was about 87 miles south of D.C. You know what, 87 miles, not that far. And we could clearly feel what was going on here in Washington, D.C.

And if you're on the 8th floor of a big office building, you can definitely -- you can definitely get nervous at that point. And as I said, I wouldn't have realized it if I hadn't gone through some earthquakes in California, but we felt the shaking, and the floors were clearly moving. Stuff was falling off of counters, stuff like that. That's the normal thing you go through.

I'm just hoping that there's not significant damage elsewhere, here, or in Virginia, or elsewhere in the region. But you could clearly feel it, and there's a lot of scared people who work in this building who are now outside. They've evacuated out of precaution. But I suspect unless there are some significant aftershocks, the worst of it is probably over with right now.

KAYE: And we're also getting reports in, Wolf, that this was felt in Philadelphia as well. But I guess the epicenter, from what we understand, was in Mineral, Virginia. Are you at all familiar with that area? And also, just let me know where you are, and give us a sense of what's taking place on the streets there.

BLITZER: Yes. No, I'm still inside the building. Unlike everybody else, I decided to stay here because I think it's over with. But everybody else has basically evacuated our building.

As I say, they say the epicenter is about 87 or so miles outside of Washington. But 5.8, that's a pretty significant earthquake. It's not just a little tremor or anything like that. That's a pretty significant earthquake that potentially could cause some significant damage.

So we're going to watch it very closely and see what's going on. But right now it looks like the building that I'm in, our CNN building up on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., is safe and secure. And we're going to send our crews out and see what's going on elsewhere. But right now, just out of a matter of precaution, we've decided to evacuate this building. There are a lot of other offices, a lot of businesses in our building, as well. And everybody was told to just take the stairs, go downstairs, walk outside.

In a situation like this, you don't want to be stuck in an elevator. So the elevators, we decided, were not necessarily a good idea.

KAYE: Wolf, we're also learning the Pentagon has been evacuated. We have Barbara Starr on the line with us, as well.

Wolf, if you would, just stand by, stay safe there for just a moment, and let's check in with Barbara.

Barbara, what is the situation there at the Pentagon?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, here at the Pentagon, just a few moments ago, as the building began shaking rather violently, I will tell you, hundreds of people started streaming out. I think their reaction was the same as mine.

This building was hit on 9/11. When it started shaking, people did not know what was happening and worried instantly that there was a bomb or some sort of attack under way once again.

You can't help it. After 9/11, that is what comes to people's mind right away whenever there is a situation here at the Pentagon.

Where we are now is, many, many people have evacuated. They are broadcasting messages through the Pentagon at this point, saying, "If you have evacuated, please stay outside the building. You will be safe." If you are still inside, as the entire CNN crew is at the moment -- Chris Lawrence, Larry Shaughnessy (ph) and myself -- they're telling us to stay in place, that there are security personnel throughout the building making sure everyone can remain safe if they are still here inside.

And of course, those of us who are used to earthquakes -- I was raised in California, I've been through many of them -- were very cognizant about the possibility of aftershocks. Right here in the CNN office in the Pentagon, we're already moving things from high shelves, out of the way, just in case there's aftershocks.

But it was quite unsettling for a few minutes there as you saw people once again with very stricken looks on their faces, running as fast as they could to get out of here. Learning very quickly, thank goodness, it was an earthquake. And now, like everyone, I think, Randi, we need to see what the damage assessment is in both Washington, New York, and up and down the East Coast, where this was apparently felt.

KAYE: Sure. It's interesting though that you mentioned that that is probably the first thought on many people's minds there at the Pentagon as we come up on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in New York. STARR: Well, yes. It was so interesting, because actually, I was standing in the press office, actually discussing CNN's 9/11 coverage, the upcoming 10-year anniversary, with a Pentagon official when the room started to shake, and I just looked at him and said, "We're having an earthquake, I think, or something else." A lot of very worried people for a few minutes.

KAYE: I'm sure. Barbara, if you can, just stay with us for a moment.

We also want to keep Wolf Blitzer with us.

But I do want to take you to Adriana Hauser with CNN en Espanol.

Adriana, from what I understand, you also felt this 5.8 earthquake in New York City.

ADRIANA HAUSER, CNN EN ESPANOL: Absolutely. Strongly, Randi.

I was actually in my office, right next to a window. I heard a big slam, and all of a sudden, even felt the window shake a little bit.

I ran out of the office to see that my colleagues had also noticed that. The lights over the studios were shaking, and I didn't know what it was. It was a few minutes afterwards that we knew that it was actually an earthquake that had been felt here, and we could all see it.

Now we're looking outside the windows here in our area. We see people actually left the buildings.

People are checking their BlackBerrys to see what they can find out. Some buildings have been evacuated. We know that some courts in lower Manhattan were evacuated, and some museums have been evacuated as well.

So, obviously, this has come as a surprise. I'm not sure people really know what it was about, but people knew that there was enough reason to leave the buildings.

I mean, we immediately came out of the offices to see what was going on. And that's when we learned that there was actually a 5.8 earthquake in the Virginia area -- Randi.

KAYE: Adriana, thank you so much for the update there from New York.

We're also getting word that the U.S. Capitol buildings have all been evacuated in Washington, D.C.

We also have Chad Myers here with us in studio.

Chad, if you would, just tell us your thoughts on this 5.8 quake that apparently hit -- the epicenter being in Mineral, Virginia. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is a pretty good quake. We're talking about somewhere from about -- I would say a shake that could last for a minute or two.

I'm on mike 45, if you guys are listening. It sounds like I'm on -- you guys have a different one on.

From Richmond, Virginia, right on back up to and north of the west end. Talking about Short Pump, really did see an awful lot of shaking there.

I'm going to get a different microphone on just in case they can't find this one. Going to go back to you guys for just a second.

You guys can hear me? OK. Maybe I just hear myself, because I was working on the headline news for just a second.

There you go, Richmond, Virginia, right on up to I-64. Here's I- 95 in Washington, D.C.

So, the shake would be really on the west end of Richmond, Virginia, and all the way back to the east of Charlottesville. And that's where -- 5.8 is a very strong shake. We're talking about something in California that would really bring some buildings down.

So, I can assume, and I think you probably all can as well, that there's going to be some damage here, either whether it's to buildings, whether it might be the structures, infrastructure, including probably some of the bridges and overpasses will all have to be inspected up there out west of Richmond on I-64. That was a pretty big shake.

We still have the depth. And this is the problem. Let's go back up here.

This is all real time. So this is all literally just coming in.

A depth of only 3.7 miles. That is a shallow quake. That means that you don't have a lot of padding. You don't have, let's say, a 20-mile or 30-mile padding of rocks that maybe won't -- it shakes a lot down here, but it doesn't shake at the surface. When the surface and the shake is only 3.7 miles away, that surface shake was pretty good.

Go ahead, Dave. You have something for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Magic One.

MYERS: Go on to Magic One. See what we have right here for you. There you go.

There's Henrico County. You can see the dot right there. We'll fly you right into it.

I used to live right there, not too far from Short Pump. And then we're out to Louisa County, flying you right in here. Don't really know that there's much of a -- let's say a fault system out here. At least when I lived in Richmond, I never really felt any shaking.

Six kilometers is the depth, at 3.7 miles. That's the shallow quake. That means everywhere out here really felt a big shake.

Now you'll see that this is a lot of farmland. This is western sections of Richmond, this is west of Henrico County, west of Goochland. And so they -- the Washington, D.C., area, 80 miles away.

That would make -- by the time the shake actually got to D.C., it would be significantly less than what you felt here, west of Richmond, Virginia, or even into western Henrico County, Short Pump, and Goochland and all the areas out there.

A pretty good shake out in Charlottesville, I assume. We will see the shake.

And I'm looking at a couple of lakes and things around here, but no real cities under the epicenter. So, the farther you get away, 10 miles, the shake is about half as much. Another 10 miles, the shake is about half as much from there.

So you're going to see out here -- and Washington, D.C., would be to the north. That's where the big shake is occurring. And we're getting crews on the way from Richmond, Virginia, right now.

KAYE: All right, Chad. Thank you very much.

We want to show you this video now, because as you know, Michael, we've been following this other story today on Dominique Strauss-Kahn. There was a press conference taking place in New York City, and apparently, as they were speaking about the case, this is video of it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK. I've been through earthquakes in Seattle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So that was what took place during that press conference in New York.

But we have a seismologist on the phone with us, Lucy Jones.

Lucy, if you could, tell us -- give us your take on what we're watching here now. We understand this has been felt -- started in Virginia, but was felt in Philly, New York City, even Martha's Vineyard, where the U.S. president is vacationing, Ohio. Please tell us your thoughts.

LUCY JONES, SEISMOLOGIST, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: That's not a surprise, actually. On the East Coast, you don't have nearly as many earthquakes as we do here in California. But when you do, the rock is so old and cold, that the shaking, it gets felt over a much wider area.

This is one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in quite a while -- in many decades at least. It is a location that in the past has had magnitude 3s and 4s. They're just east of Charlottesville, Virginia.

So if you look on the national seismic hazard maps, you'll see sort of a warm spot in that area. So it's not completely unprecedented, but it's one of the largest that we've had there.

KAYE: And give us an idea, I mean, just for the folks who have been evacuated and some who have chosen to stay inside the buildings, what are the odds of aftershocks in a case like this?

JONES: Well, there will certainly be aftershocks. It would be very rare to have a --

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: How strong?

JONES: -- without at least magnitude 4s, maybe magnitude 5. We had a 5.9 here in Los Angeles 20 years ago, and had a 5.3 as the largest aftershock.

Now, a few percent of the time, the aftershock will get larger than the first one. So you have a few percent chance you might have another magnitude 6 or even larger. It can happen. It's unlikely, but it does happen.

So people should be expecting, especially over the next hour or two -- the probability dies off very rapidly with time. So the most dangerous time is the next hour. And then you go another few hours, you're half again as likely. Much like the way the shaking dies off with distance from the earthquake, the chance of aftershocks dies off with time.

KAYE: And how much damage can an earthquake like this do? I mean, we're talking about it hitting big cities here.

JONES: We had a 5.9 right under -- in Los Angeles. So lots of people right on top. We had $350 million worth of damage and three deaths.

You don't have as many people on top of this earthquake, but you definitely don't have as strong a building code either. So I would expect that there are downed buildings, especially what we call un- reinforced masonry.

Brick buildings are notoriously bad in earthquakes, and they're relatively common in Virginia. So I think when you get close to where the epicenter is, I would expect to see significant damage to brick buildings.

KAYE: And for those who people who have decided to stay inside, what's your advice to them at this point?

JONES: If you're in an old brick building, if you didn't have any damage from the last one, then you probably aren't going to be getting it in future ones. If you've already got damage, you probably want to stay outside. There's only a few percent chance of something bigger, but that's pretty significant.

And the other thing is that there's probably going to be -- I would expect to see some damage to water systems. Whenever we have an earthquake of this size, we damage water pipes in California. Those are particularly fragile structures.

And I would imagine -- I don't know if you've gotten in contact with people right on top of it. They may have lost some electrical service. You should also be aware, if you smell leaking gas, water heaters that are not strapped down can fall over and pull (INAUDIBLE) out of the wall. And before we had laws requiring water heaters to be strapped down here in California, we would see numerous fires that would be caused that way, even at this size of an earthquake.

KAYE: Can you help us confirm the size of this? We're getting some mixed reports here, 5.8, 5.9, even a 6.0. Can you help us clarify that?

JONES: Well, I looked quickly before I came on the phone at the USGS website, and the moment (ph) magnitude, which is the most reliable type, at that point was 5.8. So, unless it's been updated by the USGS, that would be the official magnitude.

KAYE: OK. We are getting word that it has been updated to a 5.9.

But listen, let me ask you, because one of our producers has some family in Richmond. And according to his mother, she felt a terrifying jolt, actually thought it was a gas explosion.

Would people have been given any type of warning that something like this was coming? How quickly does this happen?

JONES: There is no warning. At this point, we have not found anything that perceives earthquakes.

One thing is that a earthquake happens at a location and waves travel out from it. So -- and there's two different types of waves.

The larger ones travel somewhat more slowly. So sometimes people will feel the first wave, called the P wave, and actually, the time between the P and the S wave goes for five miles per second, much like the time between lightning and thunder. So there might have been first one wave, and a couple seconds later another one. But other than that, there's no precursors to this.

KAYE: And let me ask you this. I know we're talking mainly about the northeastern part of the United States here in terms of where it was felt. But there are some folks here that we work with in Atlanta, and they're telling us that they think they felt something in Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs.

Is that possible?

JONES: Oh, definitely. As I said, on the East Coast, you have this old, hard, cold crust that does a lovely job of transmitting the waves just like a nice solid bell.

Here in California, the crust is all broken up by faults, so it doesn't do as good a job of transmitting the energy. And this large an earthquake, 5.9, can definitely be felt hundreds of miles away. And actually, since the location is down there in Virginia, I don't Atlanta is that far away from it.

KAYE: And what would be your greatest concern right now, at this point?

JONES: I think there are -- probably the places that are having the worst problem have lost cell phone service and can't get out and let you know. So they should go and look right at the epicenter, because that's where the most likely damage is going to be. And in that area, I would think that problems with leaking gas and the potential for fires is very significant.

KAYE: Lucy, Michael Holmes is here along with me in studio. I want to bring him in. He has a few questions for you as well.

HOLMES: Yes. No, it was extraordinary, what you're saying about the spread of this and how far it can stretch.

Is that a random thing, or is that something that goes out on a straight line? How does that work?

JONES: Well, it goes out in all directions from the earthquake. There's a slight pattern depending on where exactly the fault was. But the main thing is just distance from the fault. And you get stronger shaking at bigger distances on the East Coast than on the West just because of the old crust, what the rocks are like.

HOLMES: Yes. Extraordinary stuff.

And, I mean, obviously, things are still being worked out at the moment, where this is being felt and what's going on with it. But I was stunned. Actually, the Atlanta question came from our co-anchors who was sitting at home and said she felt this jolt, and then she said we came on with the breaking news.

Wolf Blitzer, joining us again from Washington.

It seems like it's quite a sizeable jolt, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, it was sizable, 5.9, almost 6.0. That's a significant earthquake, about 80 or 90 miles outside of Washington. Actually, closer to Richmond, Virginia.

But we felt it here. We're up on Capitol Hill, in our building at CNN in Washington, D.C., bureau. And I was on the eighth floor, and all of a sudden, it just started slowly, you felt the ground floor moving a little bit. The desks started to shake a little bit.

But then you could really feel the pounding. And there was a real jolt, and I'm guessing it lasted for 20 or 30 seconds. And I immediately suspected once that happened that it was an earthquake, although, originally I thought maybe there was some construction going on, on another floor, and that was the situation.

But this is an earthquake. We haven't had one here in the Washington, D.C., area in a long time.

And as you've been pointing out, Michael, it's been felt all over the Eastern Seaboard, up to New York, Ohio, obviously in Virginia, where the epicenter is. So it's a significant earthquake. And I suspect there's going to be significant damage, although we have no reports of injuries or damage right now. But I'm sure that will unfold in the coming hours.

We'll get a full sense of what has happened. But we felt it. We felt it dramatically here in Washington, D.C. There's no doubt about that.

KAYE: All right. Wolf, thank you. Stay with us, though. We'll definitely want to check back with you.

But I do want to take our viewers to Jeanne Meserve, who is outside the Washington bureau, the CNN bureau there on the street.

Jeanne, can you tell us, how are folks feeling about what has just happened there in their city?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, people were quite unnerved. There are hundreds of people around me here now. This is an area of Washington with a lot of high-rise office buildings.

In our building, we felt the floor start to move and weave and shake a little bit. Everybody beelined for those stairwells, came down.

In our building, at least an orderly evacuation. They came out of all these other buildings and congregated outside. Everyone saying to one another, "What was it? What was it?" An earthquake, frankly, not the kind of thing that people here are expecting to have happen, much less in the middle of the day, when you're at the top of a high- rise building.

People are pretty calm here. We haven't heard any sirens. We haven't seen any sign of police activity. Just a lot of people right now milling around the streets.

We did see in one of the buildings near us, some people starting to be taken back inside. So that building at least has been given the all clear to re-enter.

Once again, a 5.9 earthquake, centered about 80 miles away from here, but definitely being felt here in the streets of Washington, D.C., and in these high-rise buildings.

Back to you.

KAYE: Jeanne, let me ask you this, just in case our viewers don't know. We know that you cover homeland security issues for us here at CNN. Is there any type of plan in place to figure out when something like this happens? Is there a plan in place to figure out exactly what it is right away and make sure that there's nothing more sinister at work?

MESERVE: FEMA has had an office in place that does a lot of earthquake modeling and a lot of earthquake preparations. And they have looked at some of the principal fault lines. What they've really been worried about, of course, is the West Coast and the New Madrid Fault. In fact, there was a drill out in that part of the country earlier this year, specifically to go through the kinds of protocols that you would follow in this sort of event.

Today, I will tell you the first thing that went through my mind was, oh, my goodness, is this some kind of terrorist strike? I wouldn't be surprised, because this was Washington, D.C., if that didn't go through a lot of other minds also. But because there wasn't a feeling of concussion, because there haven't been any sirens, because there wasn't any police presence, I think people fairly early on came to terms with the fact that this was Mother Nature. This nothing else at this point in time -- Randi.

KAYE: All right. Jeanne Meserve there on the streets of Washington.

Jeanne, thank you very much.

We've also been mentioning that this was actually felt at the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan. Our Alison Kosik was there.

Alison, did you feel this?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I did, actually. Sitting in the booth, I was actually watching our Libya coverage and, yes, felt the booth shake.

And the interesting thing about where I report from, where I'm sitting right now, is this is actually a booth that's kind of suspended above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. So I may have felt it more than, let's say, someone on the floor that is closer to maybe bigger walls.

But yes, I knew something wasn't right. The shaking went on for about -- I'd say about 40 seconds. And soon after that, the fire warden came on, made an announcement here to the stock exchange, saying, "No evacuations right now, expect some aftershocks."

And we heard someone shout out, "Keep trading!" So taking it in stride here at the New York Stock Exchange -- Randi.

KAYE: And did you get a chance to speak with any of the traders there?

KOSIK: Not yet, actually. I was just asked to come and sit down here.

A couple of the reporters from down the hall from where I work here came in and said, "Did you feel it? Did you feel it?" One person said they didn't. Others said they did. So it really just depends on where we were sitting in the building to really feel that shaking that was happening.

Here in the booth, I knew something wasn't right when I saw the monitors start swaying. I saw the camera that I'm talking to you right now, that was swaying quite a bit. So I knew something was just not right -- Randi.

KAYE: All right. Alison Kosik, glad all is well there, at least on your end.

As we've been telling you now, you can see it, a 5.9 earthquake hitting. The epicenter being in Mineral, Virginia, but being felt in Washington, D.C., New York, Ohio, North Carolina, Martha's Vineyard, Toronto, many parts of the country.

You're looking at some pictures there of Reagan National Airport there. This is a live picture coming to us from one of our affiliates.

So we'll continue to watch this. We have a lot of people that we've been speaking with who have felt this. Many concerns up and down the coast of the United States here.

We'll continue to keep an eye on this, and of course the happenings in Libya as well.

So keep it here on CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We want to go now live to New York, where our Richard Roth is standing by.

Richard, give us a sense of what's happening there in Manhattan.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Basically here, this is lower Manhattan in New York City, and certainly a jittery place. The 10-year anniversary of 9/11 coming up. Everyone very sensitive.

However, there are many subway lines, underground trains running. And when I felt this, I thought, boy, that's a little bit shaky for the number 6 or 5 or 4 train running up the Lexington Avenue line. But then, when other people said, "Did you feel that, I think that was a quake," it was a much wider scope. And now what we've had is a major evacuation of all of these buildings here.

We talked to several people who described what they felt. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Bunch of people from the offices just taking the stairs out. So we all just decided to follow the tourists and get out. Then downstairs in the lobby --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was on the 15th floor, and I thought I was a little woozy or something at first, because everything seemed like it was moving a little bit. But then I realized it was an earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And so everybody just started coming outside?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I went to the hallway and they started saying that we need to go down the stairs and evacuate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Had you been in an earthquake before?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything just started to shake a little bit, and then --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Another man, a construction worker in a different building, thought it was a prank, that his friend was doing something.

We were all down here covering the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, which was a bombshell in a different right.

Now we have Susan Candiotti, CNN reporter, who was covering the press conference by Cyrus Vance, the district attorney who dropped the case.

What happened in that room?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Richard.

Once he started to talk, all of a sudden, the floors started to shake. And honestly, my first thought is, is someone shaking the back of my chair? Because there were lines of chairs.

And then it kept shaking. I quickly turned around and I thought, wait a minute, the floor is still shaking. Honestly, my first thought was, could this be a bomb?

And my third thought was, is this an earthquake? But having covered a lot of them and aftershocks in New York and -- rather, in Central and South America, it just seemed unlikely in New York.

But what we did was, quickly, Mr. Vance left the room. And then the press corps went down eight --

ROTH: And his spokesman said it was a ground-shattering thing. Susan, I have to wrap you up right now. For more coverage on the quake and other news, back to you.

KAYE: All right. Richard, and our thanks to Susan as well.

We've been telling that you President Obama is on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Dan Lothian is traveling with the president.

Dan, tell us, has the president been briefed on what's happened, and where is he?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I can tell you that we're waiting to find out if, in fact, the president felt the earthquake. He's currently out on the golf course, and the pool of reporters who are in a holding area, not far from where the president is, a couple of them actually felt the earthquake.

Now, I was on the first floor of the building. Right now we're up on the fourth floor. I was out on the ground floor - I was down on the ground floor when this earthquake hit. I felt it. I lived for quite a while out in Los Angeles. So, I'm quite familiar with the feel of an earthquake. So immediately, I knew that it was an earthquake. The ground was swaying from side to side. Looked up at one of the light fixtures, it has a little piece hanging down from it, that was swaying as well.

And it was quite surprising because we were starting to hear the reports of the earthquake in New York and D.C. And then when it starts hitting someplace like Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, all of a sudden you're saying what is this? How big is this earthquake?

Again, we're waiting to find out if the president himself may have felt it out on the golf course. I did touch base with someone at the White House who described -- who was inside the White House when the earthquake hit and they gave me one word. Intense.

Back to you.

KAYE: And Dan, how soon do you think we might hear from the president or from the White House on this? Do you expect he would make some sort of statement on this or what details might be coming out?

LOTHIAN: Look, right now, it would be just speculation. I simply don't know. I would think they're trying to gather information much like we are, trying to figure out what's going on, how bad is the situation at the epicenter. I'm getting some information here -- hang on just a second. I'm just getting some information here.

OK, hang on just a second. I'm just getting some information. The president, who is out on the golf course, he just took a phone call. One of our photographers out there, Peter Morris, just got a shot of the president taking this phone call. Again, it's speculation. It could be getting filled in on the information of the earthquake. We simply don't know. But the facts are that the president while playing golf, did just take a phone call.

So, we're trying to find out. We're reaching out to folks at the White House to find out, a, what the situation is with regards to the president, did he feel it. And will the president be doing anything, talking on camera? Will they be putting anything out? Or if they have additional information, that's still unknown.

KAYE: Do you have that photo, Dan, that you just mentioned?

LOTHIAN: I don't have it. That's just -- I got it on BlackBerry.

KAYE: OK.

LOTHIAN: And it's my photographer who's out there who rolled on this. So, we'll try to get you that video as soon as we get it here. But at this point, we don't have it.

KAYE: All right, Dan, please keep us up to date as soon as you hear any word from the administration on this one.

KAYE: Let's go back to our Wolf Blitzer. He was actually inside our Washington bureau when this happened. He's now outside on the street. Wolf, hello once again.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Hi, Randi. We're here outside the buildings. All the buildings around Capitol Hill have basically been evacuated. Although slowly but surely, they're going to start -- eventually letting people go back to offices. Go back to work. Capitol Hill was evacuated. The U.S. Congressional offices. The offices at the Pentagon, elsewhere in Washington.

Vito Maggiolo is here. One of our producers in Washington. You've been in touch, Vito, with local security services. What are you hearing about the damage, the destruction, security situation in the greater Washington, D.C. area?

VITO MAGGIOLO, CNN D.C. PRODUER: So far, I have no indication of any major structural damage. What the D.C. Fire Department has done, is they've ordered all their units to leave their firehouses and inspect their first-alarm districts. To physically, visually survey for damage. No reports of injuries directly connected with the earthquake that I've heard so far in D.C. Fairfax County is reporting no infrastructure damage --

BLITZER: That's in northern Virginia?

MAGGIOLO: That would be in northern Virginia. And D.C. Fire Department is also reducing the amount of equipment they would normally send on a call because they're receiving so many calls.

BLITZER: But basically, as of right now, it's very, very early, we have not received, at least in the greater D.C. area, northern Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, any significant reports of injury or destruction?

MAGGIOLO: Not that I've been able to monitor.

BLITZER: Have you checked in Richmond, which is much closer to the epicenter? Richmond, Virginia?

MAGGIOLO: No. Really I've been concentrating on what's going on in our backyard here.

BLITZER: All right.

Well, there's a lot of people who felt the earthquake. It was really obvious, Randi. I was on the eighth floor of the building behind me here at the CNN Washington, D.C. bureau. And like everyone else, it started rather slow. A little shaking going on. But then within a few seconds, all of a sudden, you could really feel the floor starting to move. And when you're on the eighth floor, you see the desk moving, the papers falling off, books beginning to get rattled a little bit, you realize this is an earthquake. Originally I thought well, maybe it's was construction going on. It was a lot more serious than that.

If you've felt an earthquake in California, you obviously knew what was going on here. I had felt earthquakes in California. So, within a few seconds, I realized that the whole thing, Randi, must have lasted no more than 30 seconds. I'm guessing, 30, maybe 40 seconds.

People are still bracing for aftershocks. I did feel some slight tremors in the immediate minutes after the big shake that was going on. But we'll stay on top of the situation.

Meanwhile, a lot of folks are on the streets of Washington, D.C. They're worried. They're wondering what's going to happen next. As of right now, no significant reports of damage or injury, at least in the greater Washington, D.C. area. That obviously could change.

KAYE: Wolf, let me ask you one question before I let you go. We were speaking with Dan Lothian, who is covering and traveling with the president in Martha's Vineyard. He said the president was on the golf course. He received a phone call but he didn't want to speculate on who that phone call might have come from.

But what would be the procedure here in a case like this? You've covered Washington and presidents for years. How would this work if there's a major earthquake that hit, what would be the procedure for the president in making him aware or even making him safe?

BLITZER: Well, the president first of all, would be fully informed. He's got a team of national security, homeland security aides who travel with him wherever he goes. Military personnel as well. John Brennan, the president's counterterrorism advisor, as we know, is there in Martha's Vineyard with him briefing him.

So, the president, he's never very far away from instant information if he's on a golf course or if in the residence or anyplace else. They would immediately tell him what's going on. They would give him a sense of how serious it is. If it's serious enough -- I suspect not necessarily here in Washington, D.C. It's about 80 or 90 miles from the epicenter. But closer to Virginia, the destruction, the damage could be more significant. Not only in terms of physical damage but in terms of people.

At some point, the president, if there's a really significant amount of destruction, damage, injury, president could cut short his vacation and go to the scene and see what's going on himself. I wouldn't be surprised if that happens if in fact, there's significant damage or destruction or human injury closer to the epicenter in Richmond, Virginia.

But in New York, in Washington, elsewhere along the Eastern Seaboard -- North Carolina, Ohio. You could feel this earthquake. This is a big earthquake, and it obviously has the potential for causing some significant damage. Let just hope and pray that that's not the case. But I suspect the closer we get to Richmond, Virginia, and that part of central Virginia, we're going to see that the destruction, the damage is a lot more intense than it is here in the greater Washington, D.C., area. Whether Maryland, the District of Columbia or northern Virginia.

KAYE: All right, Wolf, I know we're going to let you go here because you have your own show, "THE SITUATION ROOM" to get started on. It airs in about two-and-a-half hours. 5:00 p.m. on the East Coast. So, Wolf, thank you very much.

We are going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll go live to Virginia where this earthquake first struck. Where the epicenter hit in Mineral, Virginia. And our Jim Acosta will be live there for us. So, keep it here on CNN. We'll have the very latest for you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. We want to continue live coverage of this 5.9 earthquake that rocked the East Coast of the country. Our Peter Hamby is in Richmond, Virginia, very close to the epicenter, which was in Mineral, Virginia.

He's on the line with us. Peter, can you tell us what folks are saying there?

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER (on the phone): Well, this is something very unusual for Richmond. People here were preparing for the possibility of a hurricane this weekend. So, just a few minutes ago when we started to feel the house shake here where I'm home visiting my family, we weren't quite sure what it was. It lasted for about 35 second 45 second.

And you had a guest on earlier that described how farther away from the epicenter might have felt like a rolling sensation. Here, it felt very much like tight, kind of airplane turbulence. The house shook sort of violently for about 45 seconds. You know, things fell off the wall. But nothing major. My father is in downtown Richmond. He also reports that there was a lot of significant shaking. But he didn't see any damage, either. There's some local news reports that there's some wall collapses and things like that. But people in Richmond are still gathering information. We're just 30, 40 miles away from the epicenter in Mineral. So, we're still trying to gather information about what's happening out there. Randi.

KAYE: And what do you know about this North Anna nuclear plant in that area, which is in that area where your parents are?

HAMBY: Right. Lake Anna is a popular vacation and fishing spot in Louisa County. We're still gathering information on what is happening there. But you're correct, the power, sort of the big utility in Virginia owns their power facility out on Lake Anna. So, we're still trying to gather information.

Our photojournalist, Kim Yule (ph), said that her family was vacationing out in this Lake Anna. She said she just e-mailed a bunch of folks (INAUDIBLE). But we have reporters traveling to the scene. So, we're going to try to figure out what's going on there.

KAYE: All right. Peter, we'll let you go. Thank you very much for the update.

Now we want to check in with Jim Acosta who is in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Jim, can you tell us what the situation is there?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): Randi, we were here at Mount Vernon earlier today shooting a story for later today. Essentially, we just started feeling the ground shake underneath our feet. My knees buckled, everybody around me sort of had the same sensation, like oh, my goodness, I think this is an earthquake. And we were actually rolling some video of the mansion at Mount Vernon as this earthquake was happening. So, we have some video we're efforting to get on the air that shows some shaking of the mansion at Mount Vernon.

You can actually see on top of the mansion, the (INAUDIBLE) on top. There's a bird on top that sits on top of the cubula (ph), it was actually shaking as well. And the tourists came rushing out of the mansion as a precaution. The park asked everybody to come out of the house. Obviously, a lot of tourists here were very shaken up.

We talked to a few of them. They were obviously very worried about what was going on. But there was no fear that anybody was in great danger. This was over in seconds. And from what we understand from talking to the folks here, Randi, there was no damage here on the scene. They went through the house. Obviously, this is a very important house in American history. And there was no damage inside. And nobody here at the park, at Mount Vernon was injured at that time.

But it was very unsettling. I mean, you could certainly tell at that moment that we were experiencing an earthquake. You could feel your knees buckle. You could feel sort of weak and almost queasy on your feet, like what do I do now? And instantly, one thing that we noticed here was when people try to get on their cell phones, nobody could make a phone call. So, I suppose this is naturally something that happens when one of these disasters occurs. Obviously, everybody is fortunate so far this didn't turn out to be much of a disaster, just sort of a scary moment or two.

KAYE: Yes. Jim, I just want to make one note here. Don't go anywhere.

We're getting word from our affiliate, WTOP, that two reactors have been taken off line just as a precaution. No damage. We've been talking about this North Anna nuclear plant not far from the epicenter. So, we're getting word that two reactors have been taken off line. No damage.

Jim, once again, if you can pick up with what the situation is there. Have people been evacuated in Mount Vernon or are there any plans to do so as they prepare for possible aftershocks?

ACOSTA: You know, not at this point. The folks here at Mount Vernon told us that as a precaution, they hurried everybody out of the house. Obviously, they were concerned about all of the artifacts insides. So, they went room by room to make sure that there was nothing wrong.

You can sort of see behind me, Randi, there are tourists walking around the ground. Things seem to be moving back to normal. But you talk to anybody who was here during that time, and they just couldn't believe what had happened.

I know Peter Hamby, he grew up in Virginia. I grew up in Virginia myself not too far from Mount Vernon. And I can tell you, nobody who grew up in this area, nobody who is from this area, has ever felt anything like this. This is something that is, you know in our lifetimes, it's not been felt in the D.C. metropolitan area.

And having grown up going water-skiing down at Lake Anna, I must tell you that that has been a worry for many, many years for people who live in this area that if an earthquake were to occur -- and there have been warnings from geologists over the years, that hey, you know, this could be a concern -- people are going to be very, very anxious in the coming days.

You mentioned that those precautionary measures were taken at the nuclear power plant. There are going to be -- I can guarantee you at this point -- that lots of questions will be asked.

KAYE: I'm sure there will be. Jim Acosta there for us in Mount Vernon. Jim, glad you're safe. Thank you very much.

We have do one thing that we want to update you on before we take a quick break. We're getting word from our Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon that there was just an announcement there at the Pentagon in Washington there, there's a considerable amount of standing water in two corridors of the building. I'm going to let Chris tell you the rest of that because we just got him on the phone.

Chris, give us an update if you can on what you're finding out about the situation at the Pentagon.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): Yes, Randi, we just got an update on that. And that situation has now been contained. They were telling the workers in those two corridors of the Pentagon to stay where they were and let the repair crews get in there and get that water cleaned up and try to get those pipes repaired.

And we're now told that they have been able to do that. So, that damage has been cleaned up. People really for the most part now, are starting to come back into the Pentagon in full force and go back into their offices. Just a little while ago, we got the all-clear that there doesn't seem to be any further damage to the Pentagon and that it was safe for people to come on back to work.

KAYE: Chris, I spoke with Barbara Starr earlier from the Pentagon. She mentioned that you were there as well. What did it feel like to you?

LAWRENCE: Yes, we all have offices -- for people who don't know, all the news organizations from "Wall Street Journal" to the Washington post to Fox, CBS, CNN -- we're all in a little corridor together in our little individual offices.

And it immediately just started shaking. I was sitting at my desk next to one of our producers, Larry Shaughnessy. And the entire office just started swaying. We have a little tiny window right outside. And I could see the scaffolding that sets up outside our window, it was rocking back and forth and actually hitting against the window.

And as you stood up, you could literally feel that the entire Pentagon moving underneath you it. And it went on for a good, probably 10, 12 seconds. It was one of the larger ones. I've felt larger in California and in Haiti. But this was definitely one of the largest that I've felt.

KAYE: Chris, we're just getting word in from the National Cathedral in D.C. that pinnacles have fallen off. Nobody was injured, but we're getting word that pinnacles have fallen off the National Cathedral. For those of us who don't know the National Cathedral and that area as well as you do, would that be an area this time of day that would have been a busy area with tourists and crowds?

LAWRENCE: Just about any tourist attraction is going to be busy in August, Randi. This is prime tour season here in Washington, D.C. where the city is literally overrun by tour groups, by students, off on their summer vacations, families. And the National Cathedral is one of the biggest attractions in Washington.

Now, if you haven't been here, it's nowhere near sort of the central part of Washington where people think of the Smithsonian and the Washington Monument and the Capitol and like that. It's in an area of northwest D.C. It's really a residential area. Lots of apartments, regular grocery stores. Very residential area.

Then you've got this huge, majestic cathedral there. It's -- the only thing I would say about the cathedral, the danger would be it is so -- in a city that doesn't have a lot of tall buildings, the cathedral is a sweeping sight. Just to get a picture of it, you literally have to step back two, three blocks away to fit it all in your view finder. It's that tall

So, something falling from that height, could be an area of concern, especially in an area where you've got --normal residential area where people are walking down the street and going to and from the bus stops and Metro stops.

KAYE: And so does it appear to you that folks are streaming back into the Pentagon? No more concern coming back to work?

LAWRENCE: It was scary, like Barbara said. Your first thought, unfortunately, in this day and age is wow, are we being attacked? But then I think after a few seconds, I kind of -- my old earthquake sense kind of kicked in and I realized no, this is an earthquake. Don't expect to feel one here in Virginia. But this was a big one.

KAYE: Yes. Chris, I appreciate it. Glad you're safe. And our other co-workers as well and the folks there. Thank you so much.

We want to listen in now to our affiliate WUSA. They're on the line with someone who's been inspecting the tracks on the Metro system. So, let's listen to what they're finding out.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS - WUSA COVERAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- trying to get cell service back to the station. You could see the e-mails going back and fort. Delia, thanks for joining us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE; You're welcome. I'm so glad we can finally get on the air. It's taken some time. We're on the corner of 14th and New York. We did travel about a block or so to get a better signal so we can at least bring you some pictures and talk to Ines Clavier (ph), who has worked in the area for 20 years or so.

Tell me what you felt. Let's start from the very beginning. 2:00 or so?

INES CLAVIER (ph), WITNESSED EARTHQUAKE: Yes.

(AUDIO LOST)

(END WUSA COVERAGE)

KAYE: All right. We lost that interview and those pictures there. But I want to update you. We've been talking quite a bit about these nuclear reactors. We told you they were taken off line. Two of the reactors taken off line just as a precaution. No damage.

We're getting word from David McIntire, the NRC spokesman. I can tell you just a little bit of information in case you were concerned about that situation. They're apparently monitoring the situation. Trying to get as much information as quickly as they can. We're talking about North Anna, which is off Lake Anna. This is the closest point -- closest plant to the apparent epicenter which is in Mineral, Virginia. Both units were tripped. They were shut down automatically. The plant lost off site power. All four diesel generators, though, are working.

And just so you know, North Anna, the plant has declared an unusual event which the NRC spokesman says is the lowest of the four emergency categories. So, once again, just a precaution there. Two reactors taken off line.

What do you want to do here? Take a quick break? All right. We'll take a quick break and be back with much more on this earthquake.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of this 5.9 earthquake that has struck the East Coast. We want to tell you that it did, the epicenter occurred in Mineral, Virginia. But there's a long list of cities and places that this has actually had an impact on. Talking about Detroit, Indianapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Ohio, Toronto, Canada. We are watching all of that.

We want to tell you that the mayor, Michael Bloomberg of New York City, he's going to be having a press conference to update us on the situation. That's coming up at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. We're anxious to hear what he has to say.

We're also getting word from our affiliate in Maryland, WMAR, that 1,800 houses there are dark, they're without power. We've been talking with Wolf Blitzer and many others there in Washington. We know the Pentagon was evacuated. Now they're letting folks back in. Many of the offices throughout D.C., including our bureau, have been evacuated but now folks are going back in.

We do have Chad Myers here in studio with us. Chad, I know you've been keeping track of what's happening with the airports in the New York City area.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEORLOGIST: Yes For a while, Newark and JFK were not allowing any planes to land because there were not any air traffic controllers in the tower. They actually evacuated the towers. Now for a while, there's your holding pattern that you love so much, Randi, all the way back down here. A few planes are being allowed to land to JFK as they put their controllers back in. But as you can see, they were in a holding pattern to the eastern part of Long Island. And another holding pattern here into central Pennsylvania.

One other thing we've been watching very closely is North Anna power plant. It's a nuclear power plant. Only 11 miles from the epicenter. The plant has been shut down. It is on backup generator power. There is water going through these things. Going through the generators, trying to cool them. Remember, that's the problem that the Fukushima Daiichi plants back in Japan had a problem with. They did not have any backup power. They did not have any of this going through. So eventually, they melted down.

This is under control. It is a shutdown for an anomaly. For a small, little event that they're not worried about at all. But the water pumping through with, of course, those backup generators helping out a lot.

One more thing, I was on RadioReference.com, one of my favorite Web sites. You guys should listen to scanners all over the world, basically. And we do have some reports in Richmond, Virginia, of people smelling natural gas. That's probably not unusual if you start shaking the ground. Some of the pipes may start losing some of their structural rigidity. Especially those nat gas pipes.

KAYE: A lot to be concerned about, Chad. Thank you very much.

Let's get to Lisa Desjardin. She is at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Lisa, set the picture there for us.

LISA DESJARDIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT(on the phone): Yes, it's (INAUDIBLE) in the Capitol, which of course is mostly empty because Congress is gone. (INAUDIBLE) There were at least two separate tremors that I felt. The first one did feel like an earthquake. After that, they got the second round that was much more serious feeling. It did feel exactly like the 5.8 that I went through in Haiti. And that's the point where I know I looked at the people around me, they looked at me, and we said is this something more than an earthquake? What this?

I work in the attic of the Capitol. We don't have any windows up there. We're at the very top of the building where all the press corps is. We immediately tried to get on our phones, but for some of us, our phones were actually hanging off of the wall. I know my equipment is still hanging off of the shelves. A very large piece of radio equipment that I have called an ISDN box, the box fell off the shelf which is pretty significant. It might weigh - I don't know, 10 pounds, 15 pounds.

So, it was certainly a very serious situation. And we immediately looked at each other and said, we need to get out of here and then we all said, we need to call our newsroom. A little bit of confusion at that moment, but everyone left pretty briskly. Very orderly.

One other thing, though, Randi. The Capitol does have, of course, a significant evacuation system. We have evacuation drills there regularly. There is a system of speakers throughout the Capitol that alerts people with sounds and with directions whenever they need folks to leave the building.

I have been in there when for example planes have entered secure airspace and they have told us to leave the Capitol. During this instance, there was no such warning, there was no such direction from Capitol Police. It all happened so quickly that the evacuation orders were given simply by word of mouth by whatever office you were closest to. At least that was my experience just outside the Senate chamber, right above it.

KAYE: All right, Lisa Desjardins with the very latest there from the Capitol.

Wolf Blitzer also standing by for us in Washington, D.C.

Wolf, I'm sure you will be talking quite a bit about this coming on "THE SITUATION ROOM" later today.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We certainly will.

This is an earthquake. You don't have an earthquake here in the greater Washington, D.C., area very often. It's been extraordinary, a very unusual situation. And as you have been pointing out, it hasn't just been in Washington. It's been in Virginia. It's been in Maryland, up in New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan.

They felt it all over the Eastern part of the United States, the epicenter much closer to Richmond, Virginia, Mineral, Virginia, about 87 or so miles outside of Washington, D.C.

We're following what's going on very closely.

I want to bring in Trent Rawls (ph). He works at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau here in Washington.

You were at Union Station, which is just a block away. That's the train station here in the nation's capital. What happened? Where were you inside, Trent? What did you see?

TRENT RAWLS, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: Well, I was in the food court as I was ordering my lunch. And as I sat down to eat my lunch, I felt a strong shake.

So I thought maybe it was the train. And then it happened again. And then it got furious and then maybe seconds after that, the roof started collapsing, towels started falling from the roof and everyone was pretty much running for their lives, trying to figure out what was going on. I had no idea what was going on. I was just trying to get out of there and protect myself and just try to get out of there in a timely fashion.

BLITZER: The food court at Union Station was pretty crowded when you were there?

RAWLS: Yes, it was. It was lunchtime, peak hours, so it was extremely crowded. You had a lot of elderly folks down there in wheelchairs and things of that nature. So, pretty much everyone was doing the best they can to try to get out there to protect themselves.

Once again, it was a total shock to me, because I thought it was the train until I got the real rough rumble and I started seeing the roof collapse and some parts of the food court and towers flying down. And that's when everyone was scattering trying to get from the bottom of the food court to get to the first floor to going to out of Union Station.

BLITZER: And how did the people react there? Were they screaming? Were they in shock?

RAWLS: Well, screaming is an understatement. I think it was more so like, what's going on? I think maybe so they had more, was it a bomb, is it the train? It probably was mixed emotions.

But me personally, I really and thought it was some kind of bomb, because I never felt nothing like that before in Washington in regards to a earthquake. So it definitely caught me by surprise. And when I found out that it was an earthquake, I was a little more relieved that it wasn't nothing in regards to some kind of tourist attack or anything like that.

BLITZER: Because that was the initial instinct a lot of us had. Who knew? It could be a terrorist attack or anything like -- else. At what point did you realize it was an earthquake?

RAWLS: When I got outside -- when I came up the escalators and I got outside and security was informing everyone, oh, it's OK, it's just an earthquake, it's just an earthquake. I had a little sigh of relief after that. But I was still concerned about the elderly in the food court, hoping they got out safe and nothing happened to them.

BLITZER: Are you OK?

RAWLS: I'm fine. Just a little shaken up in the beginning. But once again, to know that it was an earthquake as opposed to anything dangerous or really life-threatening, it's truly a blessing.

BLITZER: All right, let's hope the aftershocks are not too significant as well. Trent Rawls, thanks very much.

RAWLS: Thank you.

BLITZER: We have another eyewitness, Reza Vinegas (ph).

Come over here, Reza. You're with the Department of Education right behind us, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

BLITZER: All right, tell us what happened. Where were you? What floor were you on and what did you experience?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I was on the top floor, on the 11th floor, and the rumbling started softly. And over the next like five or 10 seconds, it got stronger and stronger.

And I think that's when we realized that there was something actually going on and it wasn't just a small episode. So I came out of the conference room that I was in and a light was falling off the ceiling. But we had an employee that was standing underneath. And she was able to get out of the way quick enough.

BLITZER: How did the people react? Was there panic, was there screaming?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There wasn't any screaming. People were confused and didn't know what was going on. Living here in Washington, D.C., we know that it could be a multitude of things. But we do practice for these types of evacuations often.

So we did -- I think people did leave the building in an organized fashion. They did a good job of responding.

BLITZER: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm fine.

BLITZER: All right, good. Reza Vinegas (ph), thanks very much from the Department of Education.

Just two eyewitnesses. Two stories. There are thousands and thousands of stories here in the nation's capital. A lot of nervous people. Right now, everyone is just hoping that the aftershocks are not significant, but a 5.9 earthquake right here in the Mid-Atlantic section of the United States, nothing to sneeze at, at all -- back to you guys.