Essex-Middle River Residents React to Earthquake

Stephanie Valencia thought she was just going to spend an uneventful day grocery shopping with her 22-month-old daughter Emma.

The mother and daughter from Middle River were walking through the aisles of on Orville Avenue when groceries started flying off the shelves. Then, the lights started flickering and the signs above the aisles started to sway.

“We weren’t sure what was going on, we just knew it was really scary,” said Valencia, who works for the Baltimore County Fire Department.

Valencia was just one of the thousands of people across the East Coast recalling where they were at 1:51 p.m., Tuesday when .

The quake was centered 39 miles northwest of Richmond, VA, according to the United States Geological Survey. According to the USGS, it was the largest quake recorded in Virginia since 1897. An aftershock that struck at 2:46 p.m., was recorded as a magnitude 2.8, according to the USGS.

No major injuries have been reported as a result of the earthquake, but it left many residents in the Essex-Middle River area cleaning up items that fell off shelves and trying to calm frightened relatives.

In addition, shortly after 4 p.m., Baltimore County Public Schools spokesman Charles Herndon reported that there were "reports of cracks in walls at and Perry Hall High School." He said school officials were still investigating to determine if the damage is related to the earthquake.

Middle River resident Dwayne Innis said he knows things could have been a lot worse. He was filling his car with gas at the Exxon station adjacent to Martin State Airport when he felt his car begin to shake.

“Once I realized it was an earthquake, I began to worry that the quake could’ve caused an explosion at the gas station,” Innis said. “Once it was over, my main concern was getting in touch with my family to make sure they were OK.”

Another Middle River resident, Mary Snyder, said she thought a plane had crashed nearby.

The retired Baltimore County police officer was working on plans for Kenwood High School’s Class of 1971 reunion when items started falling off her shelves and the house began to shake as her 24-year-old son and 7-year-old grandson were in the basement.

“You think about hurricanes, snow storms and tornadoes in Maryland, not earthquakes,” Snyder said. “I’ve never felt anything like that before and hope to never feel anything like that again.”

Melissa Hall knows about earthquakes. The owner of Baltimore Snowball Factory in Essex grew up an hour outside of Los Angeles and has been through her fair share of earthquakes. Still, she was shocked on Tuesday.

“I was driving in my brand new car and thought something was wrong with the engine as it began to shake,” Hall said. “Then I came to a stoplight, turned off the engine and saw the traffic signal swaying all over the place. At that point I knew I was in the middle of an earthquake.”