Honestly if I had been in the VA quake I might have resisted the WA instinct to duck cover and hold, and simply bend over and kiss my arse goodbye, expecting a blast wave to follow.

I first heard about the quake from a TV in a hallway, CNN said it was centered 85 miles SW of DC and I automatically thought oh boy, there's are nuclear reactors right about there, maybe something catastrophic happened.

Its interesting to me that both of my initial reactions had nothing to do with earthquakes - I think more often of the DC area as a strategic target area for enemies of the US. Didn't realize it also had serious EQs.

Best thread of the event goes on over on zombiehunters.org, where wags have already rationalized the cause of the EQ as the lizard people, specifically an angry attempt to surface after an offer to feed Congress to the lizard queen was rebuffed. Love it.