Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Quake Rocks Northeast US

If you live anywhere from Charlotte to Boston, you may have felt the affects of a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck the Norhteastern US early this afternoon.  The quake that struck just outside of Washington, DC rumbled through, Philly and New Yourk City all the way up into the New England states.

Here in Philadelphia the city's Office of Emergency Management (OEM) immediately went into gear ramping up a watch command at the EOC and coordinating the inter-agency response.  Many businesses in downtown evacuated after the quake so a large police response was needed to control crowds and traffic flow. 

As all this was going on our EDS team was out on a fire in the Chestnut Hill section of the city where a late morning garage fire was still being handled by firefighters.  As lunch was being served to the emergency crews, the shaking was felt and we immediately began to follow up on what was going on.  At that point we began coordinating with our partner agencies across the division to see if any response was needed.

Luckily this was a relatively minor incident for us here in Eastern PA and DE, but incidents like this serve as a great reminder that disasters of any type can hit is at any time.  We encourage people to review your personal and family readiness plans and be ready because you truly never know!

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