Earthquake Causes Damage At Vienna Metro, Tysons Office, Some Homes

Ceiling tiles fell from the overpass of the Vienna Metro Station during , hanging loose from overhead beams at the start of rush hour commute tonight.

A metro spokesperson said Tuesday evening there were scattered reports of minor damage at stations across the metro D.C. region.

"There are crews out making those repairs right now as well as inspecting the entire critical infrastructure," he said. "Trains are running at 15 mph, and will be until well in the evening when those inspections are complete."

It's not clear when the repairs at Vienna will be made.

In the west part of Vienna, a chimney crumbled from atop a chalet-style house shortly after the earthquake stopped.

At 8304 Old Courthouse Road, near the Tysons DMV, bricks from a building crushed several cars. Videos from the Vienna Police station show cruisers shaking in the back parking lot, and the ground and trees shaking from the side of the building.

Commuters bypassed the fallen tiles at the Vienna Metro Station, marked off by cones, coming off of hours-long commutes that involved walking over bridges, hopping between buses and platform crowds stacked eight to 10 people deep.

One woman from Fair Lakes, waiting for a bus from the North side of the station, said she was visiting a client on 15th Street N.W. and was visiting the bathroom when the earthquake hit.

"The ground suddenly wasn't solid anymore," she said. "It was unnerving."

Her building was evacuated and she – along with thousands of others working in D.C. – were sent home early, on a journey that took several hours.

It took three hours for Seth Shapiro to get to the Vienna Metro Station from the office, near 20th and K Street. He walked  before grabbing a bus to Rosslyn Metro station, which was "swamped" with commuters on the platform. Four trains passed before he could get on. Around 5:30 p.m., he was still waiting for a bus from the station to take him to his friends' home in the Vienna area – he just moved to the D.C. area for a job that began today.

"It was my first earthquake ... and also my first day of work," Shapiro said.

Jordan Bostic was on the Rosslyn Metro platform when the earthquakes began.

"It just felt like a lot of trains coming at once," he said.

He said it took about an hour and 15 minutes to get from the East Falls Church Metro, where the 15 mph reduced travel speed began, to the Vienna Metro station, where he comes to play his guitar each day.

But for David Gaines, the journey was just beginning. He had taken a bus from his office in Fairfax to the Vienna Metro station, and was waiting for a train to take him home to the Convention Center area.He was sitting outside when the earthquake hit, and watched as his office was evacuated.

"I'm just getting started," he said.

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