of them. the yellow dot is where there was moderate shaking and damage. so far, the initial one just before 2:00, a couple of minor aftershocks after that. we are still prone to some aftershocks. we were talking before, the depth of the original quake diminishes the fact that we will have any more aftershocks after this. and jane, what have you found so far? >> i have not felt the earth move anymore. but many folks, i was heading for beneath my desk when that happened. we are at lafayette and north carrollton in west baltimore. behind me is one of those row homes in downtown. this one rather historic, the underground railroad runs underneath it. this was also the home of the late congressman. the earthquake got the best of the upper part of it when it knocked out the bricks and threw them down on the street. some of the folks who live on this block for home when this happened. i will start with carol braun. he told me when i talk to you earlier, the only good news is it is street cleaning day. >> thank god. i would of parked on the other side of the street where you can see right -- rubbish. my car would have been total. it felt like a bulldozer to try to push the whole thing down and you were on a surfboard to find your balance. >> were you home? >> i was at work. i turned on the television at work that we have to see what was going on. there was carol north dakota. i was like, oh no. -- there was carol and you. she being my neighbor next door, i came home right now. water is off. we are trying to get the city out here to turn the water on. the water is turned off. >> one of the things you do is check the house, am i correct? >> yes. check the copies that were in the house. everything was ok. we have 21 units here. everyone else's ok. there is some structural damage at st. john's church down the street. it has a sign on it. anyone from st. john's, this neighborhood is very close and we look after each other. we have a few cracks down st. james also. there are quite a few areas within this area that seems to have some damage. >> some really historic buildings in this area. in fact, about one and a half hours ago when of the code inspectors did post the yellow sign on the side of the building that suffered the damage this afternoon. essentially, it said it is not structurally sound. stay away from it. i asked how many keep up-to- date, and he said a bonds. so far we have no reports of significant damage. this is an unsettling event. did it cross your mind when you felt that, this is an earthquake? >> not originally appeared i just thought it was a truck with a heavy load going by. then i thought a bulldozer or something. i thought, this is bigger than that. it lasted way too long. i checked the door, and i thought where did that bring come from? that is certainly not anything but an earthquake. >> a day that everyone will remember. one of those, when three u.n. -- >> she is a lucky lady. she will receive -- we received many phone calls after the earthquake hit. i think this was a typical -- i was on the fourth floor of the building with a patient when the building started to shake. i grabbed my purse and ran out of the building. i felt my knees buckle i was shaking so bad. people were so unsettled. >> a lot of folks do not know what to do. you do not know if you are supposed to run outside, hunker down and cover yourself in the building. a lot of people found themselves in that. let us send it over to deborah. >> i just took a look at this on our live wire. i thought that was pretty cute. we have so many great pictures and so many great postings on our live wire. this is a picture that came in at with bowling pins set up. it is a strike. these are pictures from earlier. we also have pictures from a home in shady side. it felt like a giant kicked my house. ceiling fans came down. my partner came home and said the light poles were leaning. when you go today and see your kids and say it look like an earthquake hit, it actually did hit today. you can say that. we also have great postings on facebook. i will see if you have those as well. a lot of great e-mails and postings on their facebook. we will get with those a little later. but i will share some of those on our live wire. so many people commenting. one woman said she was on facebook with her daughter who lived up north in new york. she said two minutes after the quake, she felt it, her daughter felt that were she was. i thought that was interesting as well that this literally rolls up and down the east coast. you want to continue to ask people to send photos at ulocal at wbaltv.com. i want to take it to where the mayor spoke in the last hour. ky? >> the conference brought up about half hour ago. i would say the best news came from the mayor. she said there are no reports of any significant injuries. no reports of major damage. just some rattled nerves and a traffic nightmares. rush hour started about three hours early because of all of this. let us listen in on what she had to say. >> we have also deployed special traffic operators to ensure a steady flow of traffic. we anticipate increased traffic flow as people are trying to exit the city. earlier today i ordered the department of transportation to conduct an inspection of our older city bridges. i also ordered the department of housing and community development to assess vacant houses throughout the city. those inspections are going on right now. >> ok. we can tell you that the mayor told us the agency's leaders and the first responders in the city met for assessments of what was going on within one hour after feeling that earthquake. she told us that 911 is fully operational responding to every single call. those have dropped off significantly purity are saying 911 are lower than they normally are right now. there are inspecting older city bridges. they can sit building struck the city. only minor damage reported -- there are three city buildings that have received some minor damage. one of them being poured discovery. there are saying that is a very minor. broken glass or light installation that fell. at this point, they are feeling very good about the fact that at least right now it seems as if there are only some minor damage. there are teams out and about throughout the city right now assessing some older buildings -- buildings that have on the list to make sure those buildings are structurally sound. that will continue on throughout the night. for now, we will send it back to the studio. i believe we will have more updates in the next couple of hours or so. everybody is very happy that there is no major damage or injuries. >> thank you very much. which should point out housing commissioner had a good point during the press conference. even though there has only been slight minor damage so far, you never know if we might get a slight tremor. some of the older buildings are already compromise before the quake. as you are walking around, make sure you pay attention to what is above the. list things could be falling still pretty do not want to get hit in the head with something falling off of a building. our crews of been out all day looking for damage. let us send it up for an update. capt. right. >> we are over at broadway just to the east of northern avenue were baltimore city police have blocked off a couple of blocks. you are seeing the shingles at the church that is one of the areas on broadway as bobby pulls out shows the on the ground or some of the collapsed on the ground. city police have blocked off the north and southbound broadway about one block were two blocks north because of the damages it there. we see a light truck that may be dealing with a traffic signal. we are not sure of the extent of the damage to the other buildings at this location. we are still trying to figure out what is going on. one thing i did notice after the earthquake, and i went home to check and make sure there was no damage there. what of the things i looked at was my door openings to make sure that doors open and nice and easy along with close the doors to make sure there was no shifting on the house. it could be a sign as long as you can check in your basement to make sure there is no crack in d.c. meant or what not. so far in this earthquake, i have no damage. we will still check around baltimore city to see what we can find for you. >> capt. roy, thank you very much. >> we have some interesting tweet from the raven's today because they were practicing on the field and it they said no damage or anything out there. taylor, rookie quarterback, said my first earthquake was interesting. >> tory smith, a wide receiver, said i cannot believe this earthquake stuff. i was doing an earthquake and felt it. i will show you the video if i did not curse too much. >> would love to see it. some of the areas in maryland that were harder hit? >> i want to tell you about this. according to the geological survey, when talking about earthquakes in the eastern and central united states, although less frequent, they are typically fought over a much broader region. east of the rockies, an earthquake can be felt as much as 10 times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast. take for instance this earthquake, it can usually be felt as far away as 300 miles from where it occurred. on the west coast, it could be half or less of that. the hardest area hit in our viewing area, according to the ugs, moderate shaking and very light damage was felt in the northwest and east parts -- i should rather say there is northwest and east of baltimore city. strong shaking and light damage could be felt east and southeast of baltimore city. we have broken this down even further from some of the hardest-hit areas. i believe we have a bath on this. all information according, trap on the eastern shore and stevens bill on the eastern shore as well as port washington below, washington d.c., these areas according to them had the hardest shaking and most damage associated with this earthquake. what is interesting here is there are no really defined faults as far as where you can follow this from where it began over in mineral, virginia and why these particular areas were hit harder than other areas in our viewing area. this is something that geologists will study to try to figure out why these areas were hit and what association they might have with some possibly do found faults are in maryland that extended south into virginia and north into pennsylvania, delaware, and in new york state. this could be a great find associated with the earthquake. one final note, just doing some research it was actually last year around this time, july 16, there was a 3.6 magnitude earthquake that some people might remember in the region and about 10 miles northwest of rockville, maryland. it was felt strongest in and germantown. supposedly you could feel it here, but a lot of folks were sleeping at the time. it was around 5:00 in the morning. 1960 nine a 4.3 magnitude earthquake was felt in elwood, west virginia. some of those were felt in this area. go back to 1929 and 1935 when a 6.25 and a 7.0 magnitude earthquake were felt in those regions of the country. those shocks made it their way down to this part of the country. as far as a 5.8 magnitude earthquake, this is not something that we see here. history was made in the state of virginia and maryland today. something we will be talking about for quite some time. we will send it back to you in the studio. >> for clarification, when you say hardest-hit areas, are you saying structural damage that you see in the baltimore city area? >> the way they are determining this, they are calling get strong shaking and light damage when they say hardest-hit areas. those areas that we mentioned, all of those areas had the strongest shaking according to the data that they have received from this so far. again, this was taken from about 15,000 samples as far as reports that came and with both damage and shaking. they are going off of that. these numbers could change as more reports come in. kind of like when we have a tornado, you get damage reports. that is something that goes into the data. when we find out all of the data that comes in from this earthquake, we will really be able to pinpoint the strongest areas hit. at this point, they seem to be the hardest hit. we saw a lot of damage in baltimore city. >> thank you for the clarification. >> i think a lot of people will be interested to see what challenges come up with. i never thought that a 5.8 quake was even possible. it never crossed my mind. why now, why at all? like in coverage continues right after this. >> where were you when the earthquake hit? >> animal seem to have a real sense of that. >> they certainly do. david collins, we want to send it out to him. what are you seeing and hearing from there? >> it is all quite right now, but it should like everywhere else. when this happened, and lot of people started doing things they normally would not think of doing. according to the emergency workers, some try to evacuate buildings by using an elevator. wrong idea. a group of criminals tried to use the earthquake to their advantage. >> the earthquake disrupted the wedding of not only the father of the bride, he got the word first. >> they closed the building. we were waiting outside for two hours. >> the earthquake was the reason the it building was close, to you look at that as a good luck thing? >> i do not know. i am scared. >> baltimore county authorities say men mistakenly believe police would be so busy they could not deal with a robbery of a fast-food restaurant for >> we had an armed robbery and fall. we have four apprehensions. criminals took advantage of the officers dispatched to other incidents. >> those who experienced it, said buildings swayed as if a giant hand picked them up and shook it like a lead (>> where were you when all this happen? >> at the hospital. >> what did it feel like? >> let the building was moving back and forth. >> incited the hospital? >> yes. >> were other people doing at the time? >> nurses ran in to see what it was. others stood up because they were in shock. >> we were looking at the time like no places are getting off right now. the walls were shaking. people painting the garage is to the walls jumped out 3 feet and came back in. >> did you see anything fall off of the wall? >> everyone raced out. there were like 500 people running out the door at one time. >> now, natalie did get married right outside the courthouse here. according to police and fire, no serious injuries were reported. >> interesting, dave. >> interesting to what she was comparing it to appear we heard people say they thought it was the upstairs neighbors, we thought it was a washing machine. we thought somebody was running down the halls. we have had so many comments from our viewers. deborah is live in the newsroom with what people are shanker >> i know you are what to love this one. it is one of my favorites. >> oh my gosh. >> i love that. we had such great postings on our live wire. this will be one of those "when were you when -- and days. >> you had it first. we were all in here doing what you do. you got up and said, it is an earthquake. let us go. >> i remember when i was in haiti a couple of years ago and we had the earthquake. there were a lot of aftershocks. some were stronger than what we had happened today. when i felt the vibration, i thought like everyone else maybe it was a truck or plan. then when i saw the base next to me shaking, i saw lent and dust falling from the ceiling, the lights swing, we have big lights in the news from, i knew something was wrong. i said, it is an earthquake. get to safety. everybody was like, earthquake? you are crazy. >> he know, i care about you guys. >> thank you. sheldon is down with the latest on what is going on. >> we are at the corner of south highland avenue, it looks like somebody took a huge sledgehammer and knocked the side of this building. old building in hyaline the town. police said nobody was in the building at the time. nobody was in the homes on either side of the building. folks got a scare when the ground started shaking. >> i was sitting in the house with my granddaughter and the floor started going like the ocean. i got up to see what was going on. it happened again, so i got my granddaughter and got out of the house in the middle of the street. i notice that the building over here collapsed and a couple of other buildings collapsed. >> a lot of people have been congregating on the street. it lot of folks cannot get into their palms. i spoke to a guy who said that he could not be able to stay the night in his home tonight because they were worried about safety. it would be able to go in and out throughout the afternoon to arrange for a place to stay. no injuries have been reported. folks out here in highland town are breathing a sigh of relief. that is the latest here in highland town pared back to you in the studio. >> another big story in the caribbean, hurricane irene. but as check in with our chief meteorologist to is onlay irene watch. >> this hurricane could be a store for us in the upcoming weekend. for now, the summer whether we have with temperatures in the low 80's, kind of the calm before a possible storm over the weekend. it will be cool and comfortable tonight. 65 downtown, calm winds. tomorrow, and other beautiful sunny day. enjoy it. white south wins at 12 miles per hour. waves of one to two feet. eyes will be to the south of us as we watch irene. it weakened a little bit. at one point, winds were up to 100 miles per hour. it still looks like a fairly organized storm getting up into the southern part of the bahamas. has weakened a little bit interacting with a touch of land. here are the computer model trucks that ticket will east of florida. that is good news in this update. florida appears to be missing the main impact of the storm. not good news for the bahamas. maybe north will be the problem, up toward north carolina and our region. 90 mile per hour winds are now. this is the forecast track. by thursday, it is supposed to be a category 3 hurricane while east of miami. from there, as we head on toward the weekend it gets up toward the outer banks and it is still a major hurricane, 115 mile per hour winds. big question has been from their does it continue this gentle curve we see further out to sea or does it continue moving north? north of there is where we are concerned with ocean city. it looks like it will be skirting to the east of ocean city with 85 mile per hour winds late in the weekend. we will have to watch the system very closely over the course of the next few days. as it approaches, when there will be beautiful tomorrow. 85 degrees and sunny. if the front pushes farther to the south, it may be able to nudge i ran a little for the east. showers will linger on the eastern shore, and a 50/50 shot of rain over the weekend. >> thank you. stay with us. our live team coverage will continue right after a short break. >> where were you when the earthquake hit mexican the comments on our facebook page. don't forget to upload phone most to the ulocal ♪ [ rock ] [ chattering ] [ man on tv ] 96309. 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[ female announcer ] swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. >> they say there were 12 million people close enough to the epicenter of the quake to feel it this afternoon. from georgia all the way up to massachusetts. >> to varying degrees or what ever, a lot of folks are defaulted and they were reacting. except as a lot of e-mails and ulocal photos and video. i think we have a video right now. we will save it. a lot of people say in the descriptions were they were and what had happened. we got one from a viewer that says -- >> i heard someone else said they could not feel it in their car. we'll go live to rob roblin who is live downtown at the science center. >> everybody downtown today fell to this earthquake no matter where you were. it was a surprise of course for all of us. you do not see many earthquakes in maryland, right? >> this is the first when we felt at a long time. one of our visitors say he felt when a couple of years ago. i think it was a 4.4. it did register, but we did not feel it around here. it was. localized. as once brought all along the east coast. >> a lot of people are surprised that there is a fault in the area. >> we usually think of these things happening in the borders of these big place like a jigsaw pieces. that is where we hear about them a lot like in japan or in tunisia or alaska and the west coast and california, but here we have what are false happening away from the plate boundaries. there are faults of the area where the rock is fractured. it moves, moves, and it gets stuck. when it gets on stock, it moves very fast. >> this is a big earthquake, it has to be because it was felt from georgia all the way to boston. >> they are sank a 5.8, but still big enough to be felt. it ripples like a pond where you get the first jolt. there are not other faults in the area that interrupt that. it can go through a wide area. >> we also faulted because we are not deep into the earth. >> the deeper you go into the earth, you can measure how deep they are. over the next few days you will see them analyze it. right now they are saying it is 3.5 miles deep. if you go 40 miles deep, that is relatively close to the surface. does not sound close, but it is. when you get up to 40 miles or less, this is 3.5 miles, you will feel it more. >> you are talking about aftershocks. can we see aftershocks? i do not know that much about them. >> when you have one, there are but some been reported already. two point something back into pretty would not feel that here. there could be some minor ones, could be one just as large greedy do not know. you have to wait and see. >> thank you very much. "always a pleasure. but did not think that would be talking to you about earthquakes. >> yes, we thought the hurricane would be a bigger story. >> reporting live, rob roblin. >> thank you so much. epicenter of this quake was in virginia. you imagine what it felt like in washington, d.c. which is only 85 miles away from the epicenter. here is the report from kristin. show us what happened there. >> it was just after lunch when things began to shake along the eastern seaboard. the powerful earthquake rattled buildings and nerves. >> it was enough to wake you up. >> the capital and national monuments were among buildings evacuated. the national cathedral was closed after losing a small chunk. the quake was centered northwest of richmond, virginia and was felt as far south as south carolina. even in virginia -- even in chicago and detroit there was shaking. crowds faulted in times square and the floor of the new york stock exchange cleared out after the tremor. >> what is unusual about this one is the size of the event. >> the 5.8 quake is the largest recorded in virginia since 1897. a self service was disrupted in many places. several nuclear plants were taken off line by safety systems. there are few reports of any major damage. the unexpected earthquake leaving many shaken, but little to clean up. >> of the enough, we saw the video of the new york stock exchange where it was evacuate completely. the dow is up 300 points today. >> what is that it out? >> we will take it. we did get an interesting video today. you can hear it rattling. see it moving. that is kind of what it was like today. this is the soul of video we have received. i am sure maybe tomorrow more will surface. today this is always sought. >> it happened so quick, people it took a minute and i have to realize. like most people just ran. >> exactly. gary simms was inside the courthouse and saw a lot of folks evacuate. i guess you had to be evacuated as well? >> everyone started to notice something was going wrong. the building was shaking. it quickly started running out of the building. at that point, sheriff's deputies started coming out saying it was time to get out of the building. basically, a lot of people were running out of the courthouse. they also came out of mitchell court house. i want to show you -- we will show you video of what was going on. a lot of chaos with the sirens from rescuers coming through the area. some stopping here in the courthouse area to make sure that people were ok. a lot of people who were scared, a lot of people who were shaken. a lot of people who did not know exactly what was going on. many people were trying to use their cell phones. most people could not get a call out. they were all trying to do that. some people were able to get text messages out. i actually received some and was able to send some text messages. a lot of people very friend and not sure what was going on. people who were working were told to go home. also, people who were here for any court procedures were told to come back tomorrow. a building inspector was here just a few minutes ago. he was checking to see if the court house buildings were ok. he was working on the outside just a little while ago. we did talk with three women -- maria is death. she wanted to make sure we understood what she felt. >> i was in my doctor's office on the eighth floor. before starting quivering. i said to a nurse, what is going on? what kind of machines argue using that can make the floor quiver like this? then they came the second time. i said, what is that? she said, that is an earthquake. i said, we do not have earthquakes here in baltimore city. >> my hands were on the desk. i said, it was that? she did not hear it or feel that at first. he then she felt it and she jumped up and ran back and got her pocketbook and i got mine and we walked out the door. everybody was coming down the steps. >> so you feel the building shaking and you wanted to run -- and then you ran out? were you scared? >> if you reactions of people who were inside some of the buildings in downtown baltimore when this happened. as you can tell, it seems like a deserted area right now. lots of people who have left and went home shortly after this happened. the mayor said everyone should start leaving. it has been pretty quiet for the past hour or so. that is what is going on in downtown baltimore. >> very much like the scenario at the mitchell court house. people started to feel the rumble like you did, it only took one person to head to the door. everybody just followed suit and started heading to the door. >> it is funny because i was in a hallway. i felt in the floor shape. all of a sudden, i felt that shaken. i turned to my right and all of a sudden i saw people flying out of the corridor. all of a sudden from another corridor. people started running down the hallway. nobody was waiting. finally, they said to get out of the building. that is what happened. >> we are just so much more aware. here we are less than three weeks away from the 10th anniversary from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. people are so aware of what can happen if a building collapses on them. people do not want to take chances. >> a lot of people also kept their sense of humor. we had so many comments on our facebook page. we are getting ready to go to debra and to love this. charlie said -- >> that is funny. >> i love it. i knew somebody was going to use that today. i'd love it. i am on a trial live wire and facebook. there has been an update about bwi. they are open with commercial flight operations following the earthquake. travelers should contact for specific flight information. there are a number of delays reported throughout the system. >> there have been a couple of people, and on flights. he shot on their faces is almost like the shock on hours when you realized what was going on. can you believe there is an earthquake in maryland? people are like, what are you talking about? >> we will be talking about a for a long time. some other facebook comments are terrific. this one from rick -- >> i think that is the thing to capture with all of this. this is definitely a "where were you" moment. there are so many different stories out there including our own. we were just talking. you were back there at your desk. he said he thought somebody was kicking you? >> yes, a producer thought i was kicking her desk. that is how it all began. seconds later, said it was an earthquake. we all ran out. but scientists cannot tell you. some people have tested me and they said there was a look of shock on our faces and disbelief when we first one on the air. it really was. i was jokingly saying to our sports producer, i cannot believe i'm going to die in the news building. these thoughts go through your mind. a lot of us are human beings. >> a text to receive the text for my mother that said, we just felt an earthquake but everybody is okay. everybody is reaching out to each other and jamming the fault lies. >> some of the text into this and said they were in a target store shopping when the earthquake hit. items were literally falling off of part of the shelves as part of the ceiling collapsed in that store. this was a legitimate earthquake. 5.9 is nothing to sneeze at. the stuff like this and it scares the heck out of you. >> from your perspective, after it hit and -- here are some other pictures from something that fell off the shelf. >> looks like a lamp or something. >> after it happened and you heard 5.8 -- did you believe it was that great? >> chino what, just for my experience of going through this in haiti with the aftershocks and we knew those were 6.1, i said, yes. definitely. i was not surprised it was a 5.8. the have one of these things were things are actually moving. we could hear things vibrating and moving. i am surprised there are things on people's desks that did not topple over. we got really lucky in that sense. i have to tell you, it was a frightening experience for those people who have not gone through something like this. even myself who went through it in haiti, all the stops go through your mind. in a five second. you are like, or do i go, what do i do? coming up later, i have safety tips for if the should ever happen again -- i do not think it will. you never know. >> i guess aftershocks can be felt for a significant. -- i guess not felt, but they can occur for a significant time after. >> they are usually half as strong. considering where the epicenter was in virginia near charlottesville, i would think -- we have already had two already. we have not felt those really at all. they are getting really like as far as starting their and ending up here. more pictures. is that a television? i cannot tell if it is a television that fell? you can see in target, thinks definitely felt. things were shaken up. >> he really quickly, we went over this at the beginning of the show. we did some research through usgs, we found that the hardest hit areas were certain part of the eastern shore and east and west baltimore city. >> what we were getting reports of sudden collapses and schools. luckily nobody was there. we will try to take a look at that later. >> it is truly a "where were you" type of story. it is unbelievable we are going to this. >> you got it. >> i like to align earlier that kids are used to getting let us go early for storms. >> one thing that did surprise me -- >> the base on my desk was shaking. >> we are 20 to kikwit grid. we will be back with more like a team coverage of the 5.8 earthquake. >> first, here is some video. you can see the rebels on the water right during the period of the quake. >> i'd little wave action there. you can upload your photos and video to ulocal at >> welcome back to our team coverage of the earthquake that was. all up and down the eastern seaboard. >> the entire east coast was felt. we have so many interesting stores. it was a whole lot of shake rattle and roll. it began with a roar like a train outside the front door and grew in intensity lasting 25 seconds. since i have been an earthquake in japan i knew what was happening. still, to see the attached garage and house shake was unsettling. >> as soon as i felt that, which to me feels like a big giant airconditioner turned on under the floor, as soon as i felt that i was like, ok. i think this is an earthquake. >> exactly. >> it is crazy. >> i have never experienced one this large. >> you never forget it though. >> the family is running down the stairs. water the scrambling around the house? then it dawned on me. "you try to make it make sense. >> jane miller is in a west baltimore right now. there were some buildings and structural damage in that area. >> we are on lafayette at no. carrollton. behind me are one of those big old row homes built in the late 1800's and stands on winchester. an earthquake took the top part of the brick facade off. they closed off the street because first of all there are brittle over the street and cities have posted on the building, indicating it is unstable. we some of the bricks that are loose up there. gerald kohl's lives across the street. you were at work when this happened? >> that is correct. >> what did you feel? >> as far as the earthquake goes, i was too busy working to actually feel it. >> you are kidding? >> know i am not. i rushed out when i saw everybody else rushing out. the same thing had happened in the building across the street from where i work at. >> he told me he worked with somebody who has experience with earthquakes in california and measured this way. is that correct? >> he said it was a 4 inch sway on the fifth floor of the high- rise building. >> meaning the building moved 4 inches? >> yes. >> i will not disagree with that. certainly felt like it. city council president jack young showed up. does it take an earthquake to get any sighted guide to the west side? >> how are you doing? >> what do you know about the affects of what happened this afternoon? >> a lot of people were in shock because we have not experienced an earthquake of that magnitude in the city. i was at city hall in my office when a ship like three times. we had to evacuate city hall. we sent all nonessential personnel home. what did you know at that point in your office? >> i had no idea. to be honest with you, i thought we were probably being attacked because i never felt anything like that before. i thought something had happened like a rocket because that is how violent city hall shut. i understand in the council chambers, to the ceiling will look like something happened there. they are checking that out. but there might be some structural -- >> damage. i was on this side because i heard there were some damage and vacant buildings had collapsed. and i came up here and saw this house that mitchell lived in -- >> lake congressman. -- >> had some damage. i am just talking to some people in the community. i can appeal looking for something different and saw this. >> thank you for joining us. dave collins is standing by. dave? >> we are in downtown baltimore just minutes after the quake. it was around 1:50 1:00 p.m. and people were still piling out of office buildings. take a look at what we found. this is downtown baltimore. the sidewalks are never described. at first, people were very perplexed. we heard all kinds of stories about how they thought the roof was collapsing or maybe there was a construction accident. some of them told us that their office buildings shook a couple of times. they say the first sway of the building was startling enough. then it happened again actually leaning according to one office worker. their first thought was to get outside as quickly as possible. we noticed the sheriff's office was busy corner in office street corners. it seemed as if everybody was on their cell phones, icons, blackberries, try to get a hold of loved ones. word of the 5.8 magnitude earthquake spread quickly. everybody had a story to tell pretty told the two strangers on the street. they had a shared experience, and it looked like they made a lot of friends today. state workers were allowed to go home. hospital workers and other business employs unfortunately had to stay. i am sure it was tough to keep their minds focused on the job at hand after going through something like this. back in telson, emergency crews told us some people try to evacuate buildings using an elevator. baltimore county police were telling us that the earthquake was used by a group of armed robbers as an excuse -- or they thought police would be too busy dealing with other emergencies in the area to respond to them trying to rob a burger king on york road. there were all apprehended by county police. there were not too busy to take up those criminals. >> thank you. the earthquake really had a big impact of transportation. i am sure you saw traffic jams area. the airport towers were closed at jfk and newark. the train stopped running this afternoon between here and washington. flights were grounded at reagan, but they came and went at bwi. the nice bridge was closed here in maryland. >> everything we opened at this hour. things are moving slowly, but things are reopened. >> that is the good part. >> we sent a reporter rob roblin to the site center to do a press piece about hurricane i read. it turns out that that change. he is talking about the earthquake. >> how big was this earthquake? how dangerous was it? >> 5.9 earthquake -- which is the biggest one we have felt in a long time. it was centered in virginia. you can see on the map here. it is the largest ever centered in virginia. they had won over 100 years ago, but this is a lot stronger. i heard there was it a little damage in buildings, but for the most part rattling and windows shaking. but it was felt all the way up to the boston area, is that correct? >> reports that i heard from north carolina up to cape cod in boston. those requests when they happen, the ripples can spread like ripples in a pond. go quite a ways. for many people in baltimore, this is the first time and this is so uncommon. >> a very uncommon. there was one maybe four or five years ago that was a four. something. you have to be right there in that spot almost to feel it. we did not feel it at all. but she felt this one, did you not? >> i was on the second floor where the floors were floating. it was shaking back and forth. when those in the store beside me started rattling pre that is what scared everybody. >> on this monitor here, it shows the earthquakes that happened today. there are quite a few iran the world. >> you see all the earthquakes that happen today. the larger the circle, the higher the magnitude. everything that is orange happened yesterday. higher magnitude. the yellow circles are earthquakes that happened in the last two weeks pretty gives you an example of the earthquake that happened. magnitude four and above around the earth. it has been estimated that in one year earth has about 500,000 earthquakes. huge number. many of them are very small, some of them are higher magnitude, but the earth is an active place. the one that we had is already registered. >> we have one here. we also have it on upstairs. it will register a letter. that shows earthquakes live happening for the last month. ec activity over the last month as these dots appear on the map. >> thank you, jim. >> . interesting. the earthquakes were felt all up and down the east coast. 11 news is live at the washington bureau with are very latest. good evening, nicole pre-war you doing at the time? >> you know, i was upstairs writing a story on the hurricane and just let the science center, my store chains jury quickly. we are not used to earthquakes like this on the east coast. this one was felt from carolina to massachusetts. >> chaos on the streets of washington after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake jolted the region. >> at first i thought it was an airplane. an intensified. it was very scary. >> it was like a roller coaster before you got and you go -- that is how it felt pretty get shaken up a little bit. >> it hit in the battle of the day as hundreds were evacuated from downtown office buildings. >> i was on the third floor right there. it was shaking. >> we were upstairs in the building across the street. i heard it -- my blind started to rattle shaking back and forth in the windows. the whole building just shut. >> monuments and museums were shut down. >> on capitol hill, the senate was forced to convene in another building. parts of the pentagon and white house also cleared. the president on vacation was notified about the incident. >> if you are outside, stay clear of buildings -- >> at the nation puts the capital, folks are on age. capital, folks are on age. -- back at