A View from the Earthquake's Epicenter

Teacher Ali Hodell had just finished telling her kids about an afternoon drill they would be practicing today. Since it is the first week of school in Mineral, VA, the fifth-grade class was prepared to practice fire and bus evacuation drills this afternoon.

“We were just about to go into spelling, and it started,” she said. “Our trailer started shaking.”

Hodell teaches class in “Mobile 5,” a portable classroom dubbed a “mobile learning cottage” at Jouett Elementary School in Mineral. She said the shaking began, and it sounded like a thunderstorm at first.

“It was like the loudest thunder you’ve ever heard,” she said. “Then, it sounded like a train was about to hit us. I kept thinking ‘Who is strong enough to shake our trailer?’”

But, it was no prank. The classroom was in the middle of a 5.8 earthquake.

At the time, Hodell was teaching from a high stool. At six months pregnant, she worried she would have to struggle to help the students, should the trailer tip.

Luckily, that didn’t happen.

“My stool fell over, and two students’ monitors crashed to the ground, but otherwise, the room was fine,” she said.

Hodell spent most of the quake calming her students.

“One said ‘Don’t worry, this is just another drill,’” she said. “I told the kids it was not the drill. It was an earthquake.”

Another student asked if 2012 had come early, screaming “Is the end of the world?”

Despite some panic, she said her students, as were the rest at Jouett, were absolutely fine.

“We had some hysterical crying, which is to be expected, but we were all OK,” said Hodell. “We immediately lost electric, and we do not have school tomorrow.”

A 4.2 aftershock hit the area this evening, and school will not reopen until the Tuesday after Labor Day.

When Hodell returned to her home, just three miles away, she said all seemed in tact. The family has electricity and an Internet connection, though making cellular phone calls is still challenging, as most circuits are busy in the area.

“There were pictures off the walls,” she said of her home. “All of the kitchen closet was emptied on the floor. The bathroom closet, too. But no siding came off. The house seems structurally fine.”

Hodell said being so close to an earthquake’s epicenter was certainly a scary experience.

“It’s definitely something I’ve never experienced before,” she said. “It just kept getting stronger.”