Residents Shaken After Earthquake Hits Riverdale Park and University Park

Some Riverdale Park and University Park residents were rattled Tuesday afternoon, when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit the D.C. metro region.

Shortly after 1:50 p.m., residents said they felt a small tremble then violent shaking for a few seconds.

It left a few people shaken.

Riverdale Park resident Michelle Burns, who lives off Riverdale Road near Dumm’s Corner Market, said she was working at her computer when she heard a roaring sound and the room began swaying.

“For a fraction of a second I thought it might be a really big train coming (we live less than a block away from the railroad tracks and are used to some window rattling),” Burns said. “But then I realized that the whole house was swaying and that the sound I was hearing was coming from the house itself - or so it seems to me now.”

Carla Figueroa, of Longfellow Street in Riverdale Park, said she was home with her daughter when her house started shaking.

“I’ve lived in Seattle and knew what a quake was, so we headed to a nearby door jam until the shaking stopped,” Figueroa said. Although her daughter was a little scared, she said nothing broke and her cat, Nacho, slept through it.

Sherene McDougall, of 45th Place in Riverdale Park, was at the Washington Hospital Center when the earthquake happened.

“The walls were shaking, we were about to be evacuated but the nurses were not sure where we were to go so we stayed put,” McDougall said.

When she arrived home, the only damage was to a few dishes.

University Park resident Linda Verrill said she felt the shaking while at work at the FDA. Verrill said she ran out of her office when the second rumblings began.

"Nothing broke in our house but we have new hairline horizontal cracks running the length of one wall in the living room and hairline cracks where ceiling and corner joints meet," she added.

Bill Carr, of the 43rd Street in Riverdale Park, said he was working at home with the door open, when the quake came and went.

"Our two greyhounds went straight for the door and stood trembling on the porch. I was standing next to a china closet," Carr said. "When a couple of things fell in the closet and the rumbling increased, I thought I knew what was happening."

University Park resident Chris Aubry, was home when it happened and said even six hours after the quake he's still a bit "disjointed."

"The earth made a sound like thunder muffled in dirt.  There was lots of swaying and the floor undulating, like water.  I felt like I was standing in a canoe when a wake from a power boat caught me," Aubry said. "The house itself bucked and brayed like a skittish donkey."

He said he didn't even know it was an earthquake. Instead he thought it was something related to the work being done on his home. 

Sadly though, Aubry lost a horseshoe shaped framed mirror his mother had made him. The glass shattered and the frame splintered. He had it for more than 30 years.

As of Tuesday evening, no major damage has been reported to either police department. No injuries were reported either.

Of the residents Patch spoke to some said they initially they thought it wasn’t an earthquake. With the towns’ proximity to D.C. and the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, some thought it was a terrorist attack.

“I have to admit, at first, I wasn’t sure if the feeling was a bomb or not,” Figueroa said.

Burns added, “The logical portion of my brain was saying, ‘but we don’t live in an earthquake area,’ and I ran outside. A terrorist attack crossed my mind.”