Earthquake Rattles Nerves But Little Else in North Hills

This story originally published Tuesday afternoon and was updated at 5:18 p.m. Tuesday.

An earthquake of a magnitude 5.9 shook the Pittsburgh area Tuesday afternoon.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey's website, the epicenter of the earthquake occurred at 1:51 p.m. in , and sent shockwaves along the east coast as far south as North Carolina and as far north as New York City.

Fredericksburg Patch reported that numerous buildings shook and authorities evacuated buildings on the campus of the University of Mary Washington. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the earthquake occurred about 0.6 feet below the surface of the earth.

The quake rattled buildings and glasses in cabinets and caused confusion and some cellphone service disruptions around the area as well as in other states. Otherwise its effects appeared to be minimal in the northern Pittsburgh suburbs.

"I missed it," said Ross Township Manager Wayne Jones, as did other employees in the

No reports or calls for damage or other worries were reported to Ross Township emergency services, fire and police officials said. 

Power stayed on, a spokesman for Duquesne Light reported. 

The  building shook a little, but books remained on the shelves, employees said. 

Mary Lovett, one of the library employees, said she was in her car in the parking lot when it happened. 

"It felt like someone was was pushing and rocking the car back and forth," she said. "I would never have thought it was an earthquake." 

The folks behind the Facebook account for the St. Teresa of Avila Parish Festival had some fun with the news:

"Nothing like an earthquake to shake up Festival week!!!!" they reported in the status bar. 

At least two businesses in one of Ross Township’s taller office buildings closed for the day following the quake. 

“It was crazy,” said Crystal Neuberg who works for CleanNet, a janitorial services company located on the third floor of the four-story building at 5000 McKnight Road. 

"I just felt the whole building shake, and the plant across from my desk was shaking," Neuberg said. “I thought I was losing my mind. I thought it was storming outside, but it was like that times 10, for like 15 seconds.” 

Neuberg said she and nearly everyone else in the building decided to seek safety in the parking lot for around 25 minutes.   

Brandon Pennington also works on the third floor in a State Farm Insurance office.

“I was sitting down, and next thing I notice I got light-headed and the ground was shaking and the plants were going back and forth," he said. “It felt like a wind storm but 10 times worse with no wind.” 

State Farm decided to send its employees home for the rest of the day, as did Corazon, a medical consulting firm also located on the third floor. 

David Fuller was among Corazon’s last employees to leave.

“I just felt a little off-kilter, but I didn’t notice any of the walls moving or anything like that,” he said.

His co-workers told different stories. 

“They saw cubicle walls moving, felt the building shake,” Fuller said. “One woman said she looked outside and just from her vantage point she said she could see the building sway.” 

Fuller said a representative of the building’s management did make a quick inspection, and “he said it seemed okay, but our boss wanted to play it safe so she sent everyone home for the day.”

Other workers in less-tall office buildings said they didn’t notice a thing. A clerk at the Subway restaurant at 3336 Babcock Blvd. said she learned of the quake from her customers. 

Mechanics at the Meineke Car Care Center said with all of the noise generated by their tools, they were not surprised that “they didn’t hear or feel anything.” 

A hostess at the Eat N’Park restaurant at 7370 McKnight Road did report feeling “something funny” for just a few seconds.

Although Pennsylvania is not immune to earthquakes, it is relatively safe from earthquake risk, according to the USGS.  Pennsylvania may have experienced aftershocks from earthquakes in 1663 and 1727, but historical records are not definitive, the USGS said.  

In 1934, an earthquake caused buildings to shake and dishes to crash from shelves in and around Erie, and another caused minor damage four years later in southern Blair County, according to the USGS.

Most of the earthquakes or aftershocks felt since then in the state have been in Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley and other areas of eastern Pennsylvania and did not cause catastrophic damage. The last earthquake recorded in Pennsylvania before Tuesday's earthquake was a relatively puny 0.4 magnitude event on July 6 near Philadelphia.

In Eastern Pennsylvania, today's earthquake prompted authorities to declare emergencies at three Exelon nuclear power plants in Peach Bottom, Three Mile Island and Limerick and at a fourth plant in New Jersey. No one was injured and no plant operations were affected, according to .

The earthquake also did not affect operations at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, Beaver County.

The state Public Utility Commission is working with natural gas utilities throughout the state to monitor their systems while crews check for pressure changes and earthquake-related leaks, spokewoman Jennifer Kocher said.

The PUC also reminds residents who may smell or hear natural gas leaking to leave the affected building immediately and call 911. A chemical added to natural gas causes it to smell like rotten eggs.

People who smell natural gas or hear hissing or blowing sounds should leave the building without turning lights on or off or using a telephone until they are out of the building, Kocher said.