The Capital District was shaken by an earthquake at just before 2 p.m. this afternoon.
Initial reports indicate much of the eastern seaboard was affected. The United States Geological Survey reports that a magnitude 5.8 quake originated in the Virginia area.
In the Capital District no damage or disruptions were immediately reported. Social media scenes, including Facebook and Twitter, were instantly flooded with reports from across the region of people experiencing the seconds of swaying.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Office of Emergency Management is continuing to monitor the affects of the earthquake.
`Currently, there have been no reports of damage to buildings, bridges, roads, power grids, the Indian Point nuclear power plant, or other infrastructure,` said Cuomo in a statement on Tuesday, Aug. 23, around 3 p.m.
Town of Colonie Emergency Management and Planning Department Director Mike Rayball said that there are no reports of any problems in the town at all.
`The treatment plants have said there are no problems at all,` Rayball. `The sewage treatment plant and the water treatment plant had no alarms at all.`
Rayball did note, though, that in the basement of the Memorial Town Hall he felt nothing.
`The first call was from Public Operations office building and asked if I felt it. I sort of chuckled,` he said. `Then I got a call from town hall and asked if I felt it and I said no.`
Although, Schenectady County employees did get a shake.
Joe McQueen, spokesman for Schenectady County, said he was in his office on the sixth floor of the County Office Building and felt a tremor.
`Everyone was kind of looking at each other like, ‘What is going on?’` said McQueen. `We did evactuate out of precaution, both the County Office Building and the court house next door.`
County employees weren’t out for too long, because after a building inspection revealed no structural damage the workers returned. Also, no damage has been found at any Schenectady County government buildings, said McQueen.
`At least for county owned buildings there are no issues,` said McQueen. `Our public works and facilities people have been checking and looking at all of the buildings.`
The quake was felt in Ballston Spa and Clifton Park, according to tweets from locals on Twitter. Saratoga County DPW Commissioner Joseph C. Ritchey, however, said he had not received any reports of earthquake-related damage, water main breaks or other incidents.
There appears to be no `major damage` throughout the east coast, according to Rachel Racusen, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Racusen did urge the public to refrain from making cell phone calls due to overwhelming usage following the quake.
`Due to overload of cell phone usage, there are reports of cell phone congestion. We request that members of the public use email or text messages if possible to communicate for the next few hours, except in cases of emergency, so that emergency officials can continue to receive and respond to urgent calls. We encourage everyone in the affected areas to listen to the direction of their local officials,` said Racusen in a statement.