MINERAL, Virginia (AP) _ One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded on the East Coast of the United States shook buildings and rattled nerves on Tuesday and forced the evacuations of parts of the Capitol, White House and Pentagon.
There were no immediate reports of deaths, but fire officials in Washington said there were at least some injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 5.8 and was centered about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Richmond, Virginia.
Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station, in the same county as the epicenter, were automatically taken off line by safety systems, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Around Mineral, Virginia, a small town close to the epicenter, people milled around in their lawns, on sidewalks and parking lots, still rattled and leery of re-entering buildings. There was least one aftershock.
All over town, masonry was crumpled, and there were stores with shelved contents strewn on the floor. Several display windows at businesses in the tiny heart of downtown were broken and lay in jagged shards.
The earthquake came less than three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and in both Washington and New York it immediately triggered fears of something more sinister than a natural disaster.
Hours earlier, the strongest earthquake to hit Colorado in more than four decades startled people as it toppled chimneys, cracked walls and triggered minor rockslides in the arid, mountainous region on Monday night. No injuries were reported in the magnitude-5.3 quake.
Obama, who is vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, led a conference call Tuesday afternoon on the east quake earthquake with top administration officials, including the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
At the Pentagon in Washington, a low rumbling built until the building itself was shaking, and people ran into the corridors of the complex. The shaking continued there, to shouts of ``Evacuate! Evacuate!''
The Park Service closed all monuments and memorials on the National Mall, and ceiling tiles fell at Reagan National Airport outside Washington. All flights there were put on hold.
Also in Washington, the National Cathedral said cracks had appeared in the flying buttresses around the apse at one end. ``Everyone here is safe,'' the cathedral said on its official Twitter feed. ``Please pray for the Cathedral as there has been some damage.''
In New York City, the 26-story federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center, began swaying, and hundreds of people streamed out of the building.
Also in New York, workers in the Empire State Building spilled into the streets, some having descended dozens of flights of stairs.
``I thought we'd been hit by an airplane,'' said one worker, Marty Wiesner.
Another, Adrian Ollivierre, a 28-year-old accountant who was in his office on the 60th floor when the quake struck, said: ``I thought I was having maybe a heart attack, and I saw everybody running. I think what it is, is the paranoia that happens from 9/11, and that's why I'm still out here _ because, I'm sorry, I'm not playing with my life.''
The last quake of equal power to strike the East Coast was in New York in 1944. The largest East Coast quake on record was a 7.3 that hit South Carolina in 1886.
Amtrak said its trains along the Northeast Corridor between Baltimore and Washington were operating at reduced speeds and crews were inspecting stations and railroad infrastructure before returning to normal.
More than 12 million people live close enough to the quake's epicenter to have felt shaking, according to the Geological Survey.
Social media site Twitter lit up with reports of the earthquake from people using the site up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard.
``People pouring out of buildings and onto the sidewalks and Into Farragut Park in downtown DC,'' tweeted Republican strategist Kevin Madden.
John Gurlach, air traffic controller at the Morgantown Municipal Airport was in a 40-foot (12-meter) tower when the earth trembled.
``There were two of us looking at each other saying, `What's that?''' he said, even as a commuter plane was landing. ``It was noticeably shaking. It felt like a B-52 unloading.''
Immediately, the phone rang from the nearest airport in Clarksburg, and a computer began spitting out green strips of paper _ alerts from other airports in New York and Washington issuing ground stops ``due to earthquake.''
<한글기사>
美워싱턴 등 동부일대 규모 5.9 지진
(워싱턴=연합뉴스) 이승관 특파원 = 미국 수도 워싱턴 D.C를 비롯한 동부지역 일대에서 23일 오후 1시51분 규모 5.9의 지진이 발생했다.
미 지질조사국(USCS)은 이날 지진의 진앙이 워싱턴 D.C에서 남서쪽으로 약 92마일(148㎞) 떨어진 버지니아주 미네랄 지역의 지하 0.5마일(0.8㎞) 지점이라고 밝혔 다.
현지 언론은 당초 지진의 규모가 5.8이라고 보도했으나 이후 6.0으로 정정한 뒤 다시 5.9 또는 5.8로 재수정하는 등 혼란스러운 모습을 보였다.
이날 지진으로 워싱턴 D.C 시내 중심가의 고층 건물이 흔들리는 장면이 목격됐 으며, 백악관과 국방부, 의회 등 주요 관공서 건물에서 직원들이 긴급 대피하는 등 한때 큰 소동이 벌어졌다.
특히 일부 시민들은 다음달 9.11 테러 10주년을 앞두고 폭탄 테러 공격이 발생 한게 아니냐는 공포감에 거리로 뛰쳐나오기도 했다.
이날 지진은 진앙인 버지니아주는 물론 조지아주와 오하이오주, 뉴욕주, 캐나다 토론토 등 광범위한 지역에서 감지됐으며, 일부 건물 손상 등의 피해가 발생했으나 사상자는 없는 것으로 알려졌다.
뉴욕 JFK공항과 뉴어크공항 관제탑도 한때 소개령이 내려졌으며, 9.11테러로 붕 괴된 세계무역센터(WTC) 부지에서 진행 중이던 건설 작업도 일시 중단됐다고 현지 언론은 전했다.
미국내 주요 철도망인 암트랙은 이날 지진 이후 철로 등 점검을 위해 볼티모어- 워싱턴D.C.간 열차를 감속 운영했다고 밝혔다.
버지니아주에 위치한 `노스 애너' 원자력 발전소는 지진 직후 안전시스템이 가 동돼 즉각 가동이 중단됐으며, 비상발전기가 작동돼 별다른 이상이 발생하지 않았다 고 미 원자력규제위원회(NRC)는 밝혔다.
이날 리비아 사태를 보도하고 있던 CNN 등 현지 방송은 즉각 이를 중단하고 대 신 지진 소식을 긴급 타전했다.
USGS의 루시 존스는 CNN과의 인터뷰에서 "동부지역에서 최근 수십년간 가장 큰 규모의 지진"이라면서 "전례가 없는 것은 아니지만 몇 안되는 대규모 지진 가운데 하나"라고 말했다.
국제통화기금(IMF)은 이날 지진 직후 건물 안전점검 차원에서 워싱턴 본부의 운 영을 일시 중단한다고 밝혔다.
한편, 버락 오바마 미국 대통령은 여름 휴가지인 마서스 비니어드 별장에서 지 진 발생 직후 재닛 나폴리타노 국토안보부 장관, 윌리엄 데일리 백악관 비서실장, 톰 도닐런 백악관 국가안보보좌관 등과 콘퍼런스콜(전화회의)을 갖고 피해상황을 점 검한 뒤 후속 상황을 계속 주시하도록 지시했다고 조시 어니스트 백악관 부대변인이 밝혔다.
