Community Corner
Patch Reporter, Students Describe The Quake At UMCP
Patch reporter Robert Mang was at the University of Maryland campus when he felt tremors from a 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia.
At approximately 1:51 p.m., students, staff and visitors in McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland, College Park felt vibrations and stopped what they were doing.
Students looked around, perhaps wondering if the vibrations were due to construction or an earthquake. Seconds later, the vibrations intensified and students started to run. Someone yelled to take shelter under desks.
Perhaps five to 10 seconds later it was over.
Find out what's happening in College Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Still unsure of what was going on, library staff began yelling that everyone needed to evacuate the building. Once outside, the assembled crowd was still unsure what had happened, or if other buildings on campus had been effected.
Soon word spread that other buildings and nearby cities had felt it too. Then news reports began to spread that the quake, a level 5.9-magnitude earthquake according to preliminary reports, had been felt throughout the East Coast.
Find out what's happening in College Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The same scene played at other buildings on campus. Corie Stretton, a senior, and Meenu Snig, a junior, said they were holding an executive board meeting for the Residence Hall Association when the quake hit.
“All of sudden the walls shook, we looked at each, and then we ran,” Stretton said. “I didn’t know what was going on, but I just followed everyone and ran.”
It was unclear if the shaking was due to an earthquake or something else.
“I thought because it was moving day that a bunch of people could have been running carts down the hall,” Snig said.
There are no reports of the earthquake causing serious damage in College Park.
Nevertheless, Stretton said she was still concerned for her safety in the moment.
“I had never experienced an earthquake before, so to see the walls shaking around you and hearing that people had felt it all the way up and down the East Coast. People were making jokes about 2012 end of the world, but it was really scary,” Stretton said.
Once she knew she was okay, Stretton said her concern turned to her family and loved ones in Philadelphia.
“I ran back in to get my phone. I was sort of terrified to run back into the building, but it was worth it to me,” she said.
She said her family is fine.
