Earthquake damage in my apartment – My London photograph fell of the mantle.

Yesterday, an extremely rare 5.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the East Coast and left myself and millions of others in shock.

I was on the phone with a colleague when it happened. He felt it first on the 11th floor of the all-glass building we both work in and he asked “Do you feel that? Is that the wind?” Before I could answer, I felt the ground shake and I dropped the phone. Panic set in as I looked to my coworkers and I hesitated for just a second on what to do before running outside. The shaking lasted only a minute, but left myself and most of the D.C. area shaken and shocked. But everything’s OK. Just a little building damage here and there – and in my apartment, some fallen books and picture frames.

I had never experienced an earthquake before so yesterday was a first for me, and a near-first for D.C. According to reports, yesterday’s quake was the strongest East Coast tremor in 67 years. The quake emanated from a fault in Mineral, Virginia. The last Virginia quake of its intensity was in 1987 – more than 120 years ago.