I thought my ADCO colleagues’ imaginations were running away with them, until I read that there actually WAS an earthquake, and that it was felt in New York, and that the Pentagon was evacuated.
I never felt it. Maybe I’m desensitized because I lived on the Pacific Rim as a kid.
I especially enjoy the chauvinism indicated in this NYT report:
An earthquake sent tremors from the nation’s capital to New York City and New England Tuesday afternoon, the result of what officials said was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake based in Virginia.
Hello, New York Times! We’re down here! We exist! The world doesn’t drop off when you hit Virginia!
What did you feel? Share your experiences here…
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Spreading the pattern a bit… I’m getting Twitter reports of it having been felt in Ohio, and Toronto. Where else?
Even the HLN graphic ends just below the epicenter — what, you can’t feel anything south of the earthquake! We sure felt it here in Charlotte.
Todd Kincannon kindly observes, “Great catch by @BradWarthen about New York Times ignoring the South on earthquake matters: is.gd/lV3S70.”
I would go further. An event such as this points up the weaknesses of the traditional media. The Washington Post had the right idea, posting a Twitter feed instead of a full story. But in turn, the weakness with THAT was that nowhere on the WashPost website could I find (right away, anyway) that the Pentagon had been evacuated.
I immediately turned to Twitter on this, and while I may be misled here and there, on the whole I have a better, more holistic view of the developing picture. Yes, it’s fragmented, but one begins to discern patterns.
In fact, in looking for links for the above post, I had trouble finding actual news stories illustrating what I had learned on Twitter. I had to go all the way to the UK for a headline reflecting the evacuation of the Pentagon…
Brad,
You’re absolutely right. It reminds me of that awful ice storm we had back in 2003 or so. North and South Carolina were in absolute crisis for like a week, with very little media coverage outside the area. Meanwhile, if the power goes out in New York for any period of time at all, it’s like a national crisis.
Maybe that’s because there are 18 million people in NYC on a workday and the City is the seat of global finance? Isn’t it reverse chauvinism to worry that our area’s feelings weren’t considered?
Easy, everyone, we live in the land of miles and miles of miles and miles.
I AM ANGRY I didn’t get to feel the quake. Jipped, I tell you. But everyone else in Charlotte felt it so I am pretty darn certain the South deserves some love.
P.S. Check out How the #earthquake rippled through the internet bit.ly/nulkzS
No, that’s Kansas. I’ve lived there. Miles and miles of miles and miles of miles and miles.
And ya know, Toronto’s a right big city, I hear tell…
If Mark considers this the land of miles and miles and miles and miles, what would he call any state in the midwest? If anything, this state is the land of trees, trees, and more trees.
My daughter felt it here in NE Columbia. I felt nothing at school about a mile away.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2004280710341&set=a.1047333627262.2010294.1343318539&type=1&theater
I was jotting down some notes before teaching my AP class and noticed my table shaking along with my pen. I didn’t think about until I saw the office emails of teachers around the state who had felt it…or not.
Two earthquakes in two months for me. Wow.
I didn’t feel it, but I was driving between Aiken and North Augusta at the time.
Mark, unless you’ve driven I-10 from San Antonio to El Paso, you haven’t seen miles and miles of miles and miles. Kansas and Oklahoma just don’t compare. Here in South Carolina, there might not be a there there, but there is scenery: trees, telephone poles, trees and telephone poles, a church, trees, telephone poles, a sign for a church, more trees and telephone poles, another church…
My husband felt it at our house (near Richland Mall), but I was three rooms away and felt nothing. (Though when I’m working on something, a tree could fall on the house and I wouldn’t notice). My son’s teacher felt it over at Brockman Elementary.