Shortly before 2 p.m. in the United States (8 p.m. in France), the country’s east coast was hit by an unusual earthquake of magnitude 5.9 on the Richter scale.
In Washington, the Pentagon, the Capitol and many other buildings were evacuated as a safety measure.
No casualties but damage
If no human victim is to be deplored, the material damage is considerable. Washington Cathedral, for example, suffered from the quake.
“I have pieces of the National Cathedral in my hand. It’s really sad. How will they rebuild it? We expect more damage,” Jennifer Walker explains on Twitter.
The Embassy of Ecuador is also said to have suffered some damage, according to the site Breakingnews.com. In Maryland, a security camera shows the power of the felt quake.
“An impressive jerk”
The earthquake was powerful enough to stop Cyrus Vance’s press conference on the DSK affair, which was immediately left by the journalists present. “I was on the 8th and last floor with Cyrus Vance”, explained the correspondent of Europe 1, Jean-Philippe Balasse, on his Twitter account. “Impressive shaking, and evacuation via the fire escape,” he explained briefly.
The fear of an attack
“The first thing I said to myself was: I hope it’s not a bomb or a plane. But the shaking was constant and lasted too long,” said an official, Jim Garamone, already in posted to the Pentagon when a plane struck the building on September 11, 2001.
But quickly, life picked up in New York and Washington. At a standstill, air traffic resumed at JFK airport in New York. The shaking was also felt in the metro, but the network continued to operate.
Federal officers also assured that there was no damage to two nuclear reactors at the plant located near the epicenter.
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