Erdbeben!

Pretty exciting day in the nation's capital today. I was in the bathroom in my office when the quake started. Most of us thought the contractors installing the new boiler on the roof of our building dropped a heavy piece of equipment. Or maybe it was just the Red Line train running by (our office is right over the metro tracks).

We did sustain some seismic damage here in the Sawrey Village, although to be honest, it wasn't terribly dramatic. Our front steps were cracked in two places, along the seams where the sections meet.

A few things on my desk were knocked over.

The biggest casualty seems to be our daughter's cat. Tyler fled to the basement during the quake, and except for a brief, stealthy reconnaissance mission upstairs to view the [potential] damage, he bolted for the basement again. He sits there still, six hours later. People, he has not eaten dinner yet tonight. Clearly, something is terribly wrong. Maybe he knows something we don't? More to come?

ETA, 25 August 2011:  The Washington Post has an article this morning about the reactions of many animals at the National Zoo moments before, during, and after the earthquake. "Zoo mystery:  how did apes and birds know quake was coming?"