I received a text message from a friend in Upper Marlboro, Md., just before daybreak on Friday. She expressed that she was unnerved. It read: “Sorry guys, I know it’s early but I just experienced my first earthquake. It shook my bed so hard, I near fell out of it. Have not been able to go back to sleep. Physically fine. Mentally, still shook up.”
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a 3.6-magnitude earthquake struck near Gaithersburg, Md., about 20 miles north of Washington, D.C., just after 5 a.m. ET. So it turns out she wasn’t having a bad dream and her text message that woke me before my alarm went off was warranted.
“I have never felt anything like that in life. It felt like a train was riding nearby. I didn’t know what was going on. I could not stop shaking even though it only lasted for a few seconds,” Felecia J. later shared in a telephone conversation.
This is the largest recorded earthquake in the region in 36 years. –yvette caslin
