Earthquake, rattle, and roll

Today, at 1:51pm we had an earthquake. As east-coast earthquakes go, this was big, a 5.8, and it lasted a long time too, it seemed to be about 45 seconds.  Fortunately, there wasn't much damage, but over-reaction mode was in full effect, lots of office buildings closed, all the DC monuments closed, Metro ran at 15 miles an hour (until 10pm when it went up to 30 mph).

I was at home when it happened and after about 10 seconds it started getting stronger and I decided to exit the house.  But then I went back in, its hard to decide which place is safest.   Earthquakes are rare around here, but they do happen.  There was a 3.4 quake in Gaithersburg last year, and there are quite a few that are too small to feel.

Damage was very light, I hunted around the house and the worst thing I found was this:

Yeah, not much.  There was also stuff knocked of shelves but no damage.

A few hours after the quake I found another bit of damage, a water main break in the neighborhood.  Again, nothing big.