The earthquake was felt in Butler County, but no damage or injuries resulted, according to a message on the Butler County Emergency Management Agency’s information hotline. Representatives from the agency said there had not been any calls from residents in the county regarding the earthquake.
The NWS did receive a few calls from residents as far away as Kettering, said Meteorologist Mike Gallagher.
“We felt it in the weather station,” he said. There was no damage caused by the quake’s tremors, however, he said.
The 5.8 magnitude of the quake was recorded on a seismograph at the University of Cincinnati, said Dr. Attila Kilinc, professor of geochemistry and petrology at UC.
“It occurred approximately .6 kilometers (half-mile) below the earth’s surface,” Kilinc said. “It was pretty shallow.”
LPK, a brand-design company located in downtown Cincinnati, evacuated its offices at about 2 p.m. due to the quake.
“I literally was talking to my friend when I felt my chair move back and forth,” said Tracy Gels, an LPK employee. “Then parts of the ceiling began crumbling and people began running out of the floor.”
Employees were evacuated to Piatt Park, across the street from LPK’s office building, for approximately five to 10 minutes until the building was deemed safe to reenter, Gels said.
Cincinnati Bell evacuated its offices in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood for about 15 minutes after the tremors, until the building’s structural integrity was confirmed, according to Local 12 WKRC.
Reuters was reporting that a 6.0 magnitude earthquake centered near Mineral, Va., rocked the mid-Atlantic states and was felt as far north at Manhattan and as far south as North Carolina.
Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5226 or jsprague@coxohio.com.
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