Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Earthquake in eastern part of US

We've been watching and tracking Hurricane Irene since it is expected to hit either SC or NC coastline this weekend. What we weren't expecting was an earthquake. It looks to have originated just north of Richmond, Virginia, but quakes were felt all the way up and down the eastern seaboard from Norcross, Georgia, to about 2 hours north of Toronto, Canada. Here in my small town, the librarian said she felt it, the post office which is almost right next door to the library did not feel it and several people reported feeling it in different parts of the town. Neither Hailie nor myself felt it on our property. Students at Anderson University felt it while in their rooms. The fault line is widespread as reports from another town in South Carolina (Spartanburg) have reported feeling it and folks all over North Carolina (mostly around the Charlotte area northward) have felt it. From looking at a map showing reported "feels" of the quake - it runs from Georgia to New York, Ohio to New Jersey and every point between upper state South Carolina to Pennsylvania. I understood when it occurred in or around Richmond, Virginia this afternoon that they evacuated the Pentagon and the nuclear plant shut itself down. This is a good thing but we have a plant in South Carolina that isn't too far from where I live and we hadn't heard whether they shut down automatically or if any quakes were even felt in that area.

Pray that Irene doesn't hit land by the weekend and turns to go back out to sea. Cooler weather I'm all for but you see Ma America and the JGDS have an event outside of Charlotte Sunday and if Irene hits between Myrtle Beach and Outer Banks then Charlotte will likely get hit pretty heavy with the rain and all, which means the event possibly could be cancelled. If it hits down in the Charleston area, the Charlotte area should be okay but then again, one never can really tell with Mother Nature.

Keeping an eye out for after shocks from the earthquake as well as Irene - E :)

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