A 2.5-magnitude earthquake shook Howard County, Maryland, on Monday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake happened at about 5:17 p.m. in Columbia at a depth of nearly 5 miles. It was reportedly felt in D.C. and Arlington, Virginia. It was felt as far south as Waldorf, Maryland, and as far north as Owings Mills.
Someone even reported feeling the quake across the Chesapeake Bay in the Easton, Maryland, area.
Tina Laboy, deputy director at the Howard County Office of Emergency Management, joined WTOP’s Nick Iannelli on Monday night, describing worried calls her office received about the reported earthquake.
She said their first step was to gather “as much information as we can about the incident.”
“Once we had reports of the boom and the shaking, our police department, our fire department, had crews out in the community surveying for damage,” Laboy said. “When we got that notification from the U.S. Geological Survey, that put it into perspective of what types of damages we might have been looking for.”
She said the county is monitoring the potential for aftershocks and reminded residents to “remain vigilant just in case.”
The exact epicenter of the earthquake is right next to Hopewell Park in Columbia.
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