Earthquake devastation in Gaithersburg, MD

[Dogmudgeon]

The property damage is incalculable.

http://twitpic.com/25txue">Suburban Washington, DC damage at epicenter

But tomorrow, when Bob's Home and Patio and Ace Hardware open, we'll have a better estimate.

--d!

[anarch]

1. LOL

[EFerrari]

2. In San Francisco we usually get our estimates from

the milk aisle at Safeway.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Or the bottled spaghetti sauce aisle --

That always makes for a good photo. :D

[ohheckyeah]

3. LOL

Now, that's funny!

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. Funny!!

[T Wolf]

5. More likely to tip over their highball glasses than a lawn chair. But hilarious. Thanks. nt

[defendandprotect]

6. Was there actually an earthquake?

[KamaAina]

7. A small one

magnitude 3.7 (or barely enough to get a Californian's attention).

[Dogmudgeon]

9. Yep. As reported at DU ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4467171">Minor Earthquake Rattles Washington, DC Area

:hi:

--d!

[MiniMe]

10. I live in Gaithersburg, it didn't even wake me up

The dogs didn't even bark, and my dog is scared of thunder.

[TZ]

11. I thought it was a truck going by..

Laugh all you want but it was an unusual event here. Certainly conversation worthy. Heck my work even sent out an email telling us to double check our equipment to make sure the calibrations weren't thrown off.
Seriously though...I want to know who to blame....Surely such an unusual event has to be because some one showed too much cleavage...:evilgrin:

[MiniMe]

12. I blame Obama

Because he went on vacation. I guess Washington shakes when the whole family is gone. :evilgrin:

[JaneQPublic]

13. Whadda ya say we all start referring to this as "Obama's Katrina?

When is the fundraising telethon for the survivors?

I've already made a generous donation to the Red Cross' special fund for Gaithersburg.

:rofl:

[Subdivisions]

14. OMG! I had no idea there would be such damage! WUSA chimes in:

wusa9 about 18 minutes ago We're on the way for a live report from the backyard!

[TZ]

16. LOL!!!

:thumbsup:

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Ok those of us who live in quake country are going

FUNNY... that said if this is a foreshock....

The strongest quake in US history was not the San Fran quake of 1906... but when the Madrid Fault went off in the 1820s. That even changed the course of the Mississippi and it is believed to have been in the 9.0 range.

Trust me, something like that TODAY would be all but humorous...

On the bright side it is NOT on the Madrid Fault system... but still.

[Stargazer09]

18. I hope it's not a foreshock

The geologists will probably be able to tell us more in a few days, since everyone seems to be making such a big deal of this. Considering the population density, that's understandable.

Here is the information about the New Madrid Earthquakes, from Wikipedia:

The 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes (pronounced /njuː ˈmædrɪd/) were an intense intraplate earthquake series beginning with an initial pair of very large earthquakes on December 16, 1811. These earthquakes, as well as the seismic zone of their occurrence, were named for the Mississippi River town of New Madrid, Louisiana Territory, now Missouri.
There are estimates that the earthquakes were felt strongly over roughly 130,000 square kilometers (50,000 square miles), and moderately across nearly 3 million square kilometers (1 million square miles). The historic 1906 San Francisco earthquake, by comparison, was felt moderately over roughly 16,000 square kilometers (6,000 square miles).

/I did a paper on this for my geology class last year. In terms of magnitude, it was fairly close to the 1906 earthquake (both were roughly 8.0), but due to the composition of the rocks, the New Madrid quakes were felt over a much larger area.

[Hubert Flottz]

17. That's just ole Donnie Blankenship's hammer sucking wind...

Better keep an eye on your mountain tops.