The earthquake’s aftermath resulted in one of the year’s worst commutes home Tuesday, delaying travel and sending a flood of people out of the District, while authorities rushed to inspect rail lines, bridges and tunnels.
Roads were clogged with cars as many people headed home after being evacuated from their office buildings. Debris falling from buildings closed some streets in the District, and some traffic lights went dark or simply started blinking.
An auto store in Chantilly was filming a commercial when the 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit. (Aug. 23)
YOUR EARTHQUAKE PHOTOS
Transit officials had to shut down rail systems long enough to be sure that quake damage hadn’t caused safety problems, and air travel all over the nation backed up like a toppling row of dominoes after at least three eastern airports were temporarily closed to check control towers for structural damage.
One of those airports was Reagan National, where planes were grounded for more than an hour at mid-afternoon. With New York’s John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International also temporarily closed, airlines began holding some eastbound flights.
In Washington, Metro said that its inspections should be finished overnight and that it hoped the system would be back to normal by the Wednesday morning rush hour.
The instant outbound rush hour at mid-afternoon Tuesday was reminiscent of the mess created during last winter’s snowstorm, when a federal decision to shut down the government early unleashed a flood of traffic. This time federal workers were allowed to depart at 2:30 p.m., but some said they didn’t receive the notice until two hours later, when they were either in traffic or normally would have been headed home.
“It’s a parking lot,” Terry Speigner moaned into his cellphone, trapped on Route 1 in Arlington and bound for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
“It’s never good when everyone gets out of work at one time, so that is going to make for a bad commute,” said Joan Morris, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
As Metro launched into a systemwide inspection of tracks and tunnels as a safety precaution, trains were slowed to 15 miles per hour and platforms filled. And when trains did come, people complained that the operators shut the doors before they all could jam in. Some just gave up and packed into buses instead.
“People were getting off [trains] and then the doors [would] close while people were still getting off or trying to get on,” said David Umansky, a District financial officer who was packed in on a platform at Metro Center. “Some people are trying to shove their way in.”
There were some tense moments as people boarded trains aware that there might be aftershocks.
Charlcie Steuble, 43, of Vienna, said passengers fell silent as the train made occasional stops between stations.
“The one that got a lot of attention was when the train stopped between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn, under the Potomac,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘I hope we’re not in the middle of an aftershock and we’re underground.’
“Everyone was collectively holding their breath,” she said. “It was eerie. It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. It was a collective sigh of relief when we got aboveground.”
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