The largest Virginia earthquake in more than a century shook the Washington, D.C., region at about 1:50 p.m. Tuesday.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake registered 5.9 in magnitude and took place 3.7 miles below the surface. The quake was 9 miles from Mineral, Va., 90 miles southwest of D.C. It lasted about 30-40 seconds and was felt up and down the East Coast.
After early inspections, there are no reports of road or bridge damage.
DDOT reported some traffic light outages. People should remember to treat those intersections as four-way stop signs.
Metrorail will remain open, but riders should expect delays as trains will be running slower -- 15 mph -- as tracks are inspected, officials said. No damage has been reported. The Massachusetts Avenue entrance at Union Station was closed. The First Street entrance is open.
All Metrobus routes are operating with delays due to the traffic light outages and evacuation traffic.
Verizon Wireless said it did not experience any damage to its system, but customers may have experienced problems because of a high volume of usage.
"The industry's infrastructure appears to be intact, but because many wireless consumers are using the networks, we are experiencing higher than normal traffic," read a statement from CTIA, the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry. "In these high volume instances, there can be delays. We encourage people to send text messages and emails to contact their loved ones until volume returns to normal."
Ceiling tiles came down at Reagan National Airport, and flights were stopped, but the airport was operating again by 3:30 p.m. All flights are arriving and departing at Dulles international airport.
At the National Cathedral, one spire fell, and another is leaning, News4's Tom Sherwood reported. A woman visiting the cathedral with her son said the floors were making waves. Her son said when they got outside they saw pieces of stone on the ground. The building has been evacuated.
All the monuments on the National Mall were evacuated.
Parts of the White House, the Pentagon, Homeland Security and the U.S. Capitol were evacuated. Light fixtures shook on the ceiling of the Capitol.
U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberley Schneider said all congressional offices and the Capitol Building will not be reopened until the architect of the Capitol determines that the buildings are structurally sound, which could take a couple of hours.
At the Pentagon in northern Virginia, a low rumbling built and built to the point that the building was shaking. NBC News's Jim Miklaszewski said his first thought was that the shaking felt like the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
People ran into the corridors of the government's biggest building and as the shaking continued there were shouts of "Evacuate! Evacuate!''
A broken water main at the Pentagon has caused considerable flooding, but that was the only damage reported. The water was shut of but wasn't expected to remain off long.
Damage has been reported at another church in northwest D.C. and a school in northeast D.C.
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SOURCE: NBC Washington
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