builtings in new york city. earlier we saw top of the rock in new york city, the folks on their roof tops. we saw the top of the empire state building. this is new video of folks on the streets in new york because many of the build versus been evacuated. we have reaction from one person who experienced it firsthand. take a listen. first off, 9/11. it happened here. earthquake in new york, you feel it like that, it s not the first thought. it could have been an earthquake, but not my first shot. reporter: you thought another 9/11. something like it. like another building went down. megyn: what a terribly frightening thing have to imagine for those affected. and obviously we are worried about damage to buildings. not just loss of life or injury. but damage to buildings which is common when you have an earthquake that is a 5.9
about a little more than a half mile. so it s a very shallow earthquake which makes it more dangerous and 5.i.9 is a strong earthquake. we talked about history earlier. the 3.6 earthquake they had in maryland earlier. that the strongest earthquake we could find in that area in recent years. when you talk about going from 3.6 to 5.9, that s a monumental lift. earthquakes don t just go up incrementally. the difference between a 5.9 and 6.0 is significant. it s probably about 1,000 times stronger. so you get a 5.0 to a 6.0 you are talking about 1,000 time the strength of that earthquake. that s why this is such a big deal. it was felt clearly up and down the eastern sea board. i would be surprised if after
the pilots are allowing the cell phones back on and we can move around the aircraft. but we are at a complete standstill. it s kinds an extraordinary situation. they apparently evacuated the airport control tower. megyn: thank you for the update. we ll get back to you as the news warrant. you should check if you have any travel plans today with your local carrier with the carrier you intended to use as we are now confirming that according to our reporter on the ground, jfk airport has been shut down as you may hear is the case with many airports and rail stations in the area. jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon which has been evacuated. reporter: we have just been allowed back in the building. but when the quake hit, and we didn t not was an earthquake at the time. as we were running down the hallway the entire building was being evacuated i heard
york from folks outside of the buildings that have been evacuated there. folks out west are more prepared for this type of events than we are here on the east coast. to what extent as far as you know are our buildings shored up and prepared for a mag used to this size? for a magnitude of this size? a magnitude earthquake of 5.9? in the western u.s. we have lots of newer structures built to seismic safety codes. on the east coast in this part of virginia we have a lot of unreinforced brick and masonry-type structures which are vulnerable to strong ground shaking. that s the biggest difference in terms of structures that can be damaged or hurt people.
we are going to try to get that below dyers on the phone so we can hear from him and try to reach out to the local airplane airports. and other means of travel. you can expect delays and cancellations to the extent any rail lines have been affected. and give up this type of event they have always like to make sure there is not any significant or potentially hazardousous damage before they allow people to proceed with travel. this is just an eyewitness account from one of our pentagon producer. the earthquake was felt in our chairs well inside the building. we snook our chairs. snook our chairs. my chair rolled under me. the building the pentagon made of reinforced concrete and things were falling off the shelves. people were running for the exits fearing a 9/11-style attack. can you imagine being inside the pentagon as we approach the 10-year mark since the 9/11