The D.C. Earthquake of 2011!

Yesterday, a 5.9 earthquake hit Washington, D.C., and tremors were felt from the Carolinas all the way up to Maine. The White House was evacuated, courts closed, and law firms stopped operating. This thing literally rocked the legal world. Where were you when the east coast earthquake of 2011 hit?

Okay, I’m sitting on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and I just felt the ground shake. And we’re getting reports that it was felt in Boston and Akron, Ohio.

Television news reports are saying that a 5.8 earthquake just hit Washington, D.C. We also felt it here in New York.

UPDATE (2:07 PM): The quake has been upgraded to a 5.9.

The quake was reportedly centered around Charlottesville, Virginia. The White House has been evacuated.

What’s going on at your job? Also, West Coast readers, do you have any tips? We’re not used to the ground moving out here.

UPDATES, including a reader poll, after the jump…

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The Supreme Court was not evacuated. The justices weren’t there anyway, but there are many staff members at One First Street.

We haven’t heard any reports from people at UVA Law. Hey guys, let us know that you are all right.

Join us on Twitter as we continue to follow this story.

UPDATE (2:13 PM): All government buildings in New York City have been evacuated, including all the courthouses. Seriously, our buildings here are not built for this. It’s like watching a person from Los Angeles try to drive in a snowstorm.

Here’s the map of the epicenter.

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UPDATE (2:45 PM): Dahlia Lithwick reports that all is well in Charlottesville. So we’re thankful for that.

So far, we have a contender for the worst internet earthquake advice ever, from the commenter who said: “Duck and cover, get out of the way of buildings, and pray that east coast doesn’t fall off into the ocean.”

Get out of the way of buildings? NYC is made, entirely, of buildings!!!!

Meanwhile: Did anybody get to go home from work early today because of the quake? Do we really live in a country that is so obsessed with productivity that the earth shakes and we’re all like, “Meh, is that memo done?”

UPDATE (3:11 PM): Let’s get ahead of the blame game. As you know, they just opened the Martin Luther King Memorial on the national mall. I have not ruled out the possibility that earthquakes happen when monuments are erected to black people. But MLK is not the only possible culprit. Take our reader poll below on who you think is truly responsible for the great D.C. earthquake.

Who to blame for the D.C. Earthquake

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5.9 quake hits East Coast; Pentagon, Capitol buildings evacuated [CNBC]
5.8-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes East Coast [New York Times]