it east coast which is bracing for hurricane irene later this week. and history being made in libya as well where rebels have taken gadhafi's compound, yet no sign, still, of moammar gadhafi. the biggest story right now, as i said, it's here on the east coast. we're awaiting a news conference from mike bloomberg, and while we wait, let's bring in my colleague andrea mitchell who was in the nbc building in washington, d.c. when this began to happen, and just to redress, retake your steps, andrea, describe what it was like when you first felt this quake? >> reporter: i felt the desk shake. it sounded as though a freight train was coming through the studio. everything wag shaking, papers rocking up and down and immediately the manager came running in and said, it's an earthquake. everybody out. and i initially said, well, can we finish the show? and it was clear that we couldn't finish the program, because everybody was running

out and saying, of course, the safest thing, leave and head down the staircase with several other colleagues here we went down three flights of stores. it's a three-story building, and spent some time outside until the allall-clear was give's and people were allowed to go inside to work. a lot more happening around washington. you just heard from luke russert. the historic moments we washingtonians remember at the national cathedral and the country as well. state funerals for presidents and the service after 9/11 ten years ago, and they were inside planning that when the pinnacle actually sustained that damage. a continuing story, stonework, on that cathedral. it may not seem old by european standards, but for washington that is a very important monument. all of the monuments were closed. we'll were evacuated from major buildings.

the homeland security complex right behind us was evacuated. they're all now back inside. a large complex of many building, in the northwest part of stit. the white house was being examined for damage. we haven't heard a lot of damage to buildings of historic sites but they're checking all that. the museum, the lincoln memorial, jefferson, washington memorial, washington monument. we know, of course, they are working on the martin luther king jr. memorial. the formal ceremony on sunday. the 48th anniversary of that important event. so we are still checking metro and downtown traffic, a total jam. martin? >> thanks, very much, indeed, andrea. and i'm joined now by my colleague peter alexander who's here in downtown manhattan, or midtown manhattan. peter, what's the latest? >> reporter: you know, we want to give you information we're

just now getting, martin, coming from one of my colleagues across the hudson river in new jersey, where there's a small airport people in this region may be familiar with. reports that we have confirmed that one of the buildings across from that airport has some structural damage. 2,000 people have been evacuated there. 2,000 many employees. that is the quest diagnostics building just across from the airport that's been damaged. the good news no injuries reported. the workers are telling us, they saw cracks in the walls and some damage and the stairwells and other items knocked over. specifics of this area in manhattan and throughout new york city, the good news is, no reports of substantial damage. a news conference is supposed to start anytime now with the mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg, speaking about what happened here. for a short time immediately after this earthquake took place, roughly 1:51, 1:52 eastern time this afternoon, city hall was evacuated. obviously, in the city that's so sensitive post-9/11, plus the

blackout of 2003, what exactly was taking place. i was inside our building and looked out the window pup saw a lot of people coming to the window to see what other people were doing. making eye contact across streets from building to building, and then as you went to elevators, the elevators shafts were filled agency people tried to find the quickest way out of buildings and martin, when you came down to the street it was that same confusion that unfortunately too many of these emergencies, a lot of people said i knew i had to get outside. when that happened, my phone was congested. verizon reporting heavy congestion in the first 20 minutes immediately after the earthquake. they say everything sbak to normal except for high call volumes at this point. at&t is reporting similarly high call volume. the people who were outside told us i didn't know what to do then. couldn't reach loved ones or children at day care and in other locations, that's obviously one of the big concerns thereness any lesson to be learned from what happened right now. finally the governor of the

state, governor cuomo, saying there are efforts right now to make sure there is no significant damage anywhere throughout the state of new york. >> peter do we know when the mayor, michael bloomberg, is expected to speak? >> reporter: he's supposed to be speaking anytime now. we're monitoring that on live cameras. it's back in the control room. when he does, tail take it live as well. scheduled for 4:00 p.m. eastern time. >> peter alexander in midtown manhattan. thanks for joining us. now to nbc chief science correspondent robert ba spem you were talking earlier about the concerns in regards to the nuclear power on the east coast. have you been able to contact the emergency team responsible for securing them? >> reporter: yes. just got through to the regulatory commission and the north anna plant two reactors, the one closest to the epicenter of today's earthquake is the only one that was shut down, and it was shut down safely. there was absolutely no danger

or possibility of a radiation leak. the generators there that are supposed to kick in to keep the rods cool did as they were supposed to do. so the rods are being cooled thereby completely eliminating the danger of any radiation leak from excess heat as we saw at fukushima in japan, where there was a tsunami that knocked out -- >> that must give us reassurance that they seem to be efficient on a day like today? >> reporter: absolutely. there are many nuclear power plants. i don't know the exact number, in the area that felt the shaking today bay of the nature of the earth, as we said, in the eastern united states. the shaking was felt for very long distances and only that one plant, the north anna plant, where it was even necessary to shut it down and it shut down completely safely and harm ldsly. indeed, there are backup systems that almost always work very

well with nuclear power plants. maybe i'm biased, i spent so much time in japan the last few moss, when a nuclear power plant does go bad it can cause huge problems. very fortunately today nothing bad happened to any of the nuclear power plants. as we keep hearing over and over and will probably hear more reports of cracks and other structural damage because of the nature of -- this was a powerful earth wake at 5.9. that we will probably hear more and more reports of damage to buildings that so far very fortunately we've heard no reports of any injuries to human beings, aened i think this is an amazingly good story in that way. not just the nuke clr power plants but with the danger to human life. >> explain to me, bob, if you can, the difference between the impact of an earthquake on the east coast and as compared to what it would do on the west coast? >> reporter: well, look at it this way. the east coast of the united states is older. as a result, the rocks are harder and it's more -- it's more like a rock. the whole thing is like a rock. in the west, the earth is older.

more recently volcanic. it tends to be softer. an earthquake in the west, the energy dissipates more in the softer earth. so in the east it's like shaking a rock. if you shake a rock, everything on the rock is going to move, and that's the way it is in the eastern united states. a relatively small earthquake releases a lot of energy over a very large distance. that's what we're seeing today. seeing those shots in washington, d.c., 5.9 earthquake which is a long way away, causing people to go running out of buildings and feel very worried about it. even here in new york where the relative magnitude of the earthquake was under 3 which is thousands of times less thanned actual magnitude of the earthquake. >> yet -- >> reporter: because of the tall buildings people felt this way. >> yes. >> reporter: on the ground floor, i felt it, but very few people felt it. they were on the ground floor of the building.

>> indeed. the u.s. geological survey saying the virginia earthquake stuck an area not seismically active? >> caller: turns out earthquakes do occur in areas that are not historically active. earthquakes occur in the -- the entire earth is divided up into things it called plates, and at the edge of these plates is where we have the faults, where there's frequent earthquakes. but there are earthquakes and they're often not forecast that occur in the middle of plates. because the plates get squeezed by forces over hundreds of thousands or millions of years. and those are the kind of earthquakes, like the weren't today, that are almost impossible to foresee or to predict. as i pointed out before, there was an earthquake in 1812, more than 200 years ago, in southeastern missouri, that was estimated to be a 7.7, and very few people were around in those days who kept historical records. native americans.

very few europeans, and it's estimated that if that earthquake would to have occurred today it probably would have killed millions of people. there is a potential for earthquakes. weren't of the largest ones in a long time and it has the ability to cause a lot of damage. >> robert bazell, our science expert. thanks for your expertise and do stay with us. i'm joined by lieutenant colonel tony schaaf heeffer, in washington, d.c. area. where were you when the earthquake struck, because you normally appear on stillin's sho dylan's show? >> i just had car work done and thought, goodness. they didn't do a good job. all of a sudden the engine's not working. i looked around, other thing was moving around. with 30 seconds, the streets filled with people. very surreal, almost like

something out of a sci-fi movie. incredible. >> you felt like someone put a tush other dmarg your engine? >> like weren't of the cylinders decided to take a trip on its own outside of the motor. >> what were people doing when you pulled over? >> people were in shock. i don't think anyone knew what to make of it and mofolks had n concept of what an earthquake felt like. i've talked to many folks since it happened. total shock. we had a 3.0 earthquake 15, 20 years ago, and you know, a 10-second rumbling, everybody noted it. this went on for a while. it was like riding a roller coaster for a certain amount of time. >> you probably heard the national cathedral suffered damage. three areas of that building damage. was there any damage you could see from where you were? >> no. i actually was able to park over by the government accounting office to see that. you could see immediately they had inspectors out looking up at

these old buildings. not sure if you've been to that area of ton. >> i have. >> you know it's one of those 19th old century buildings that is just brick and one of those things orb yoisly we talked about, those building, not designed to withstand any amount of stress. it was very notable, and kudos to the geo staff outside looking up trying to make sure there was nothing they would take care of right away. >> we're awaiting a statement from the mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg. we're expecting him to speak in the next few minutes. tony, going back to your situation. >> yes. >> did you get back in the car and carry on or what did you do next? >> well, we had to cancel a conference call we going to have with folks out on the west coast and started to try to figure out what was going on. a live shot behind me. the capitol came tlry with no problem. most people like me were trying to figure what to do next. you couldn't do much.

literally, i had to park my car down the road to come back to the studio. i went, in an hour, probably about a block. traffic now from here on is probably going to be terrible, and it's just going to be you know, weren't of those classic days that everybody remembers probably the rest of their lives. >> lieutenant colonel tony schaeffer. thanks for joining us. we're awaiting, as i said, a statement from new york city mayor michael bloomberg. stay with us and we'll bring it to you live in a few moments. aflac! oh, i've just got major medical... major medical. ...but it helps pay the doctors. pays the doctors, boyyy! [ quack ] oh yeah? what about your family? ♪ we added aflac, so we get cash! it's like our safety net... ♪ to help with the mortgage or whatever we need! so my family doesn't feel the pain too. ha! [ male announcer ] help protect your family at aflac.com. [ pigeons ] heyyy! hooo!!! is best absorbed in small continuous amounts.

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and here's mayor michael bloomberg of new york city.

well, good afternoon. joining me today are nypd commissioner ray kelly, fdny commissioner sal and emergency management kmmer bruno and transportation commissioner jeanette and chancellor of the department of education dennis. as i think by now everybody knows about two hours ago, like people up and down the coast, new yorkers across the five boroughs felt the effect of this afternoon's earthquake, which we're told was centered in virginia just outside richmond. the u.s. geological survey reports there was also a smaller aftershock in the virginia area that was not felt here. and we're staying in touch with the u.s.g.s. for further updates. thankful think, the nypd and

building departments and other agencies reported no major damage or injuries or transportation or utility service disruptions in our city as a result. as of now, we have investigated two reports of possible minor damage in all cases we are not evacuating buildings. at the red west housing authority development in brooklyn, there was a partial chimney collapse, bricks fell from the chimney to the roof and on top of a water tower, nobody injured. and the building engineers as well as the nypd and fdny said the building was safe for re-entry. they're assessing the next steps that need to be taken, this by engineers. and in brooklyn, engineers concluded no damage as a raumt of the quake. it's safe to say property owners should do due diligence and visually inspect buildings for cracks as they feel the situation warrants it.

turning to transportation, flights in and out of kennedy, la ya laguardia and newark resumed. as a precaution, transportation department bridge inspectors are visually inspecteding the major river crossing, but there is no indication of any damage. the department of environmental protection reports no damage to the water infrastructure in or outside the city, as a precaution we are continuing to inspect dams and other significant infrastructure. calls to 911 and 311 naturally spiked but have returned to normal levels for this time of day and year. let me remind new yorkers to only use 911 for emergencies. we evacuated the emergency room and quickly returned to work now i do understand for many people this was a stressful afternoon.

but so far we've been lucky to avoid any major harm. my thoughts are clearly with the people of virginia and other areas more directly affected by the earthquake. let me before we take questions, summarize today's announcement for spanish-speaking new yorkers. [ speaking in foreign language ] [ speaking in spanish ] >> and that's the mayor of new york city, mike bloomberg, addressing the gathered media saying that probably owners should visually inspect their buildings, but at this moment apart from two incidents in brooklyn there doesn't to be any

specific damage to buildings around the city. no damage to water crossings, the river structure not affected and also that amtrak was suspended 30 minutes but is now operating normally. all the airports have resumed. he accepted, however, it has been a stressful afternoon, but suggested that 911 calls are now back to their normal level and the people should only use that emergency service if there's a genuine emergency. i'm joined now by peter alexander, my colleague, who's down in midtown manhattan. peter, what's the latest down where you are? >> reporter: martin, what's interesting, a gap between the east coast and west coast when it comes to an earthquake. a lot of people here in midtown manhattan raced for exits trying to get out of buildings. people on west coast, where i'm from, commenting from e-mail and twitter saying people on the east coast have been doing exactly what you're not supposed to do in situations like this. from childhood on, in the west coast, these earthquake centric cities, these are places where you're talking to duck and

cover, not supposed to run out into the streets because of the fear of building collapses and downed power lines. the good news we didn't have that problem here. one of the real problems for a lot of the the people in this area is the lack of familiarity with an earthquake that may have put them in a more compromising situation trying to run out into the streets of new york city stfl. the good news, we heard, the mayor there, no reports of injuries now. no significant damage. one point he note worth pointing out as well, due diligence going forward into this evening as stressful afternoon as it was. by many people, checking your properties, check structures to make sure there are not any cracks or any damage to the infrastructure that could be vulnerable in case of another earthquake down the road. jfk now open. laguardia open. ground stops reported at nuke airpo newark airport here. we heard from others transportation has not been impacted by this. it may clear out the commute.

a lot of people we spoke to on the streets, at this point, i'm going head home. >> do you think a lot of people actually left the city earlier as a result of this? >> reporter: i think that is what happened. one woman said i can't reach my home. i'd rather drive out and see my family for myself. >> peter alexander, thanks very much. stay with us. i'm joined now by kristen welker, who's with the president, or has been following the president on his vacation on martha's vineyard, and kristen, i understand you do have some kind of statement from the administration. is that right? >> reporter: we're just getting a little bit more information, martin. we're just learning according to white house officials that president obama held a conference call at 2:50 this afternoon. playing golf when this all happened, when the earthquake struck here at martha's vineyard and he spoke with some of his top advisers including his chief of staff, bill daly, janet in napolitano and they all reconfirmed what we heard from

bloomberg. no major damage at airports and nuclear facilities and at this point in time, no call for any federal assistance subpoena according to white house officials president obama asked to be updated on this situation throughout the evening. and as is necessary. so the president has spoken with his senior advisers about this. we're also awaiting some sort of a paper statement, martin, and will bring that to you as soon as we get it. >> the president also made aware, was he, of the impending impact of hurricane irene? of course, we've had the earthquake but are expecting this hurricane to hit the east coast very soon as well. >> reporter: absolutely right. another topic of discussion when they spoke at 2:50 this afternoon. they talked about hurricane irene, talked about preparedness and readiness. so the president trying to stay on top of these breaking situations while he's on vacation. he was playing golf, as i mentioned, when we felt the earthquake here on martha's vineyard. as i mentioned to you earlier,

martin, it was very mild here on martha's vineyard. i didn't feel it. some of my colleagues in the press pool did feel the earthquake. i noticed the chandelier shaking a bit. we're still waiting to hear whether or not president obama felt it out on the golf course. martin? >> thank you very much, kristen. stay with us as we continue this hour. i'm joined now by a geologist for the university of california at davis. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. >> i guess on the west coast, you west coasters, this is a kind of, a normal occurrence? >> well, you can't say it's entirely normal. i mean, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that occurs in a popular area can do significant damage. witness the february 2011 earthquake in christ's church new zealand that killed a couple hundred people and damped or destroyed about 1,000 building. in the western u.s., a 5.9 earthquake wouldn't do this damage wah we have few masonry buildsings left, to be honest,

masonry buildings left. the east coast, however, it's a different story. >> indeed. what is the difference between the east and the west as far as the impact of an earthquake like this? >> there's really two impacts. one is dupe to the engineered nature of the buildings. in the east you're not used to having earthquakes. you don't have many of them. so because it incurs an extra cost in building buildings to withstand earthquakes it's typically not -- the building codes are not as stringent as in the west. oert effect is that the earth's crest is colder and denser on the east coast than it is on the west coast. so the earthquake waves actually propagate farther and with more intensity on the east coast. several speakers, i'm sure you've had on, have probably talk and the new madrid earthquakes which caused church bells to ring in new england and buckled sidewalks in washington, d.c. that's an example. also you're seeing reports of felt, this earthquake being felt as far away as canada and new

england. so that's a result of the long propagation of these waves. >> this earthquake was felt as far north at toronto and as far south at atlanta. is that unusual? >> it's not unusual for the east coast. it would be unusual for california, but as i said, you know, with the kind of, the nature of the rocks in the east coast, you can get this more intense shakesing that occurs further away. >> john randall of the university of california-davis, thank you very much for your expertise on this. >> my pleasure. and in a moment, we'll be going to the region of the middle east for stephanie gosk who will be reporting on developments in libya. stay with us. we'll bring you that live report. [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language.

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more on the earthquake

coming up and we'll continue to cover it 5.8 magnitude earthquake that began about two hours ago centered in the northwest of virginia, shaking much of washington, d.c., new york, martha's vineyard, toro o toronto, even as far as atlanta. there's been seismic changes also in libya today as rebels stormed gadhafi's compound and basically took control of it. nbc's stephanie govg is in the region and en route to libya. stephanie, i guess there's much celebration in that part of the world at the moment? >> reporter: there really is, martin. momentous victorious day for the rebels. more important than even marching into green square. this was ga dodgegadhafi's home enormous symbolic value for people of tripoli and also for libyans in general, and the rebels took his compound today with a fight, but not a huge fight and they basically walked in and looted it. incredible images of rebel forces going in and coming out

with weapons and gold-plated rifles. coming out even with gadhafi's clothes. a real statement that the reign of gadhafi is over in the country, but there are still some very big questions that remain here. first and foremost, where is moammar gadhafi? where is his son saif? who had a bizarre showing last night. rolling up in a white limousine at the hotel. also, where -- what kind of supporters are left? a lot of people believe there might be quite a strong force in his home town. how the rebels handle that and how that force decides it wants to organize or fight back is really force and foremost the biggest concern now for the rebels. >> stephanie, we were hearing bizarre reports earlier today that gadhafi had actually telephoned someone in the chess federation ever russia affirming that he was still in tripoli. he wasn't going anywhere and saying that he was thankful for the supporters, his supporters

and his friends, and that he was not going to leave his compound. do you know anymore about that? >> reporter: it's interesting. this person, it seems to be something of a confidant for gadhafi. remember back when i was in tripoli a couple months ago, he sat down and played chess in a bizarre scene in tripoli, some of the first pictures we'd seen of him in a while. this is a good source to share information with, obviously. it's all speculation he's in tripoli. there's no proof of his whereabouts at all, and obviously, the rebels, it's first and foremost their priority to try find him and this really won't be over until they do. something else that i mention, too, of critical importance right now, the hotel. the hotel where foreign journalists were brought by the gadhafi government to cover the story while they were still in power. right now there's a group of 35 stuck in that hotel. they're surrounded by

pro--governmepro- pro-government forces and aren't allowed to leave. it's really the last batch of supporter, willing to give up a fight. right now the journalists are something of human shields at this point. martin? >> what about the fact, stephanie, that a number of people have looted what appeared to be weapons munitions that were held in parts of the compound and other areas that were held by gadhafi what do we know is going to happen to the hardware? the weaponry? where's that going? >> reporter: well, it's going right into the rebels' hands or civilians' hands. one of the things i've noticed going in and out of libya over the last six months, how many weapons there are. how many people have guns. this is a country that is armed to the t. weren't of the important things for the new government and the rebel forces and their leaders, if you try disarm this country. right now that's going to be very difficult. almost everyone has a gun, and

right now you're seeing people willing to use them and with the security situation as it is, no real control over the country. no one really in power, people are going to want to hold on to those guns for their own personal safety. >> stephanie, thank very much for joining us. and you've underlined my good wishes to you to remain safe and careful in all that you do as you travel. >> reporter: thanks, martin. did you ever think on a day when the dow was up 300-plus points you wouldn't hear about it until 4:30 p.m.? more breaking news coverage in a moment. stay with us.

we're continuing to cover news of the earthquake that occurred about two hours ago. a 5.8 magnitude that was centered northwest of richmond, virginia, sheiaking much of washington, d.c., new york city, rhode island. as far north at toronto. as far south as atlanta. there was one fairly sizable

tremor thereafter. new york city mayor michael bloomberg has just give an press conference in which he said that all the airports are now functioning in the city. that's laguardia, newark and jfk. and amtrak, suspended 30 minutes is now functioning. no damage to any major river crossings. however, the national cathedral in washington has suffered some quite severe damage. we'll bring you more details as we get them, but i'm joined now by dr. wayne, the secretary of smithsonian institute and not only an expert on earthquake but actually felt this one himself. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon, martin. >> can you describe what happened as you sat, i'm assuming in that rather aghast building? >> we in the capitol building, built in 1957. up on the second floor having a meeting with some of the members of the board regents and the education staff in what's called

the parlor room, which is really a conference room that used to serve as a dining room for the press secretary. and we began to feel motion in the building and i personally thought it might have been the traffic, something like that. but it was clear it was an earthquake. i've been in earthquakes a lot. i'm an earthquake engineer. most people decided to get under the table. which was absolutely the right response. i tried to sit and feel the motions carefully, because i can tell a. >> bit about an earthquake from the motions. >> did things begin to move in the room itself? were you able to see, for example, the chandelier or pictures moving? >> there was some movement. certainly very clearly felt in the room itself, it was -- actually the passing of two waves. the earthquake was distant enough to separate the compression wave and shear wave. the compression came by, strongly felt. you get a little die-down and then the shear wave,

distortional, a lot of the cracking. you really could feel that. little plaster particle falls. dust in the air. and we had some cracking in some of the windows on my floor. >> so you've actually got cracking on the windows? >> yeah. some cracking on the interior windows. a structural -- we sent everybody home and closed the museum and so we have had to check on all damage reports and there's a lot of plaster on my desk, for example. there was a lot of cracking of the ceiling. >> as you were speaking we were seeing -- >> and i meant 1857. >> indeed. seeing pictures of virginia where there's really severe damage, but in the institute itself, in the building itself, you were saying that there's damage around the windows? >> yes. that's the oldest building. we have quite a few, obviously.

19 museums and galleries and a large number of of museums at dulles and's in virginia. we're don inspections in all the facilities to better understand if there are any serious damage problems in the building. >> i'm assuming all were evacuated fairly quickly? >> they were. both from the staff and we sent our staff home and for obviously vis visitors. we'll have a substantial discussion over the evening about opening the buildings for tomorrow's guests. >> secretary of the smithsonian institute. thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. >> thank you. as if the earthquake isn't enough as we speak spr 80 million americans from new england to florida are bracing for potentially field the impact from hurricane irene. this was irene as a category 2 storm when it slammed into puerto rico. it's expected to strengthen even further as it heads towards the

u.s. in fact, they're expecting 125 mile-per-hour-plus winds in the bahamas tomorrow. this amazing image from nasa illustrates the massive size of the most dangerous storm we've had to worry about in years. our meteorologist carl parker has the latest and he's tracking it for us. >> as you say, a very dangerous storm. now category 2 storm, moving toest west-northwest, 10 miles an hour. the satellite picture. you see the impressive satellite outflow there. the higher clouds fanning out in all directions indicating the storm is in a favorable environment. we think that will continue the next couple of days, and passing just to the north of hispaniola, now coming into the turks and caicos island. tough afternoon and evening for those folks and beyond that, storm comes up through the bahamas likely as a major hurricane. in fact, rapid intensification is possible and may actually be

a category 4. this will probably are devastating for the bahamas over the next couple of days as it lifts towards the north and west. we believe it will pass to the east of florida. so we're not looking for a direct impact there. more indirect impact. certainly very high surf and gusting winds. beyond that, the center of storm coming up towards north carolina this weekend. could be a major hurricane if that happens. beyond that potentially could take aim on the m-- looking for extreme, high threat level into the carolinas and now extended our high threat level into much of the northeast in this area. you've got saturated ground. if we get very heavy rain that could lead to catastrophic flooding in parts of pennsylvania, new york, new jersey in particular. if the storm doesn't come right up the 95 corridor we'd be talking about widespread tree and power line damp and potentially millions, millions of people being put in the dark

by the storm nap would be this weekend and going into monday and that is with the realm of possibility at this point. back to you, martin. >> carl parker, thank very much indeed. we'll bring you more on the earthqua earthquake, which began in northwest virginia earlier today, about two hours ago in a moment. stay with us. [ male announcer ] members of the american postal workers union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ to make baby food the way moms this would. of the american postal workers union. happybaby strives to make the best organic baby food. in a business like ours, personal connections are so important.

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slowly getting back to normal. an aircraft cake taking off from one of new york's airports. it's now just over 2.5 hours since the 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered in virginia shook most of the northeast from washington, d.c. to new york city, as far north as toronto, down as far as atlanta and across the country to chicago. it was a 5.8, as i've said, and our chief science correspondent robert bazell joins us now with new information on this specific detail of this. bob what have you got? >> reporter: martin, this occurred in an area known to have seismic activity, called the virginia seismic zone created many years ago when the appalachian mountains were formed. by contrast, the sierra, nevada, mountains, associated with the san andreas fault.

as it shows, it's still capable of causing earthquakes and i was speaking to dr. arthur lamb, the head of earthquake science at columbia university's observatory who said that the term wake-up call is, of course, an overused term, but this is a wake-up call. that there are earthquakes in the east. there are areas, throughout the united states, including the east, and throughout the world, that are not associated usually or mindful of earthquakes but are very capable of causing earthquakes. he said this will make us take a second look at our buildings because there's an old saying in earthquake service that earthquakes themself seldom kill people. what kills. see badly constructed buildings. if we look at buildings that are old that have bricks on them or structures like tunnels and bridges that can cause a lot of damage if they're severely damaged, we should make sure that they are in shape and take

some kind of shaking of this magnitude, bay it's not unexpected. there was an earthquake of this size, as we've heard in virginia about 200 years ago, and 200 years in gee loll time is an instant. this is an indication that the only place in the united states that gets earthquakes is not california and the rest of the west. it can occur anywhere. it has oh kred in the east and we can expect to happen again. martin? >> robert bazell, thank as ever for that. we're joined by dave ross, regional executive for the northeast of the usgs, the united states geological survey. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> what can you tell us in specific terms about this earthquake? >> an event that occurred in the virginia seismic zone, magnitude 5.8 approximately, and an event that's unusual for this area. actually in 1897 near a county in virginia not far from blacksburg, virginia where the last event of this size

occurred. in fact, the largest we really recorded or monitored, in recorded history in this part of the country. and it's a moderate, modest to moderate sized earthquake but one that could have minimal damage associated with it. >> and what do we know about any potential aftershocks that occurred? are you able to tell us anything than? >> yes. we've had two we've recorded so far. magnitude 2.2 and magnitude 2.8 but would anticipate with the next several weeks we could have numerous aftershocks up to one ma in a tude level below the main shock. rule of thumb. up to the middle of nag ma tude 4, 4.5, something like that in that neighborhood, would not be unexpected. >> would you surprised, though, that the impact of this earthquake was commonwealth as far afield as toronto in canada and atlanta? >> no, not really. because we're well aware in at least the seismological

community earthquakes in the eastern part of the country tend to carry their seismic energy much more efficiently and be felt over much broader distances than a similar sized earthquake, say, in california. that's because the earth's crust in the southeast a bit bolder, colder and harder. the energy that an earthquake generates tends to propagate more efficiently than the warm e softer crust in the west. >> thank you very much for your expertise. >> my pleasure. a final note from the my colleague peter alexander here in midtown manhattan. stay with us.ed her t into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality.

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were back. you join us as new york is observed before us from a helicopter. things are getting back to normal here, about just over 2.5, 2 hours 40 minutes ago, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in the northeast virginia area. shook the northeast, as far east at toronto, canada and as far south at atlanta. a 5.8 magnitude, as i said. one following aftershock that was felt. my colleague peter alexander has been reporting for us throughout the hour, and he joins us now. peter what is the atmosphere in the city now? are people sort of returning home and feeling more relaxed? >> reporter: i think they are. finally it's time to head home and everybody across the region will have a pretty good story to tell tonight. one thing memorable about this quake, a lot of people here in new york city and chicago, and in other places, learned about the earthquake by twitter before

they actually felt it. that's just the immediate, the social media and other applications of that sort. so people had that experience here as they finally head home tonight. the good news is the major airports across new york, jfk, laguardia, newark, all reopened. there are some delays on the ground at those airports. specifically newark. two reports we heard of minor damage near an airport in new jersey. across this region, unscathed. no substantial damage, no injuries to report and today the challenge now begins for many organizations including new york state as they go out to nuclear sites and other places to make sure there is no structure damage. while the earthquake has past, it concerns many across the region, it will be on their minds going into the evening hours. >> peter, mayor michael bloomberg was reassuring in his tress conference saying all the bridges, all the tunnels are well. there's been very minimal damage to buildings in the city itself

and also was sympathetic to the fact that people 34 tin the cit they react as it were, with the very worse sense of what happened for obvious reasons, because of ten years ago? >> post-9/11, the blackout of 2003 changed the way people across this country and absolute lie here in new york city and washington, d.c. experience emergencies. in this case, a 5.9 is very unique for this part of the country. as one report suggested, there are 1,300-plus earthquakes of roughly this magnitude in the u.s. this year but they doan happen here. that's why across this region many are breathing a sigh of relief this was not something more serious. >> peter alexander, thank very much indeed for joining us this afternoon an thank you for being with us this hour. our coverage will continue right now on "hardball" with chris the east coast gets rattled. let's play "hardball."