We felt the building shake at the Dunvagen office. We all went down the stairs. One man behind me was trying to shove his way through the crowd. I told him it wasn't helping matters.
Out in the streets, people from the nearby buildings gathered. It would take a few minutes before anyone started getting the tweeted news reports that an earthquake struck in Virginia. People were murmuring, saying it was a subway tunnel collapse, a terrorist attack and so forth. I wasn't going to wait around for news. Traffic moved down broadway without much change from its daily routine. It made me think whatever happened wasn't happening upstream. I headed for the nearest open space in that direction.
If it was our building that was shaking, or just our block, why would I want to be anywhere close to that if it were to topple? Call me old fashioned, but I think running away from what seems like a dangerous situation is a good method for self preservation.