Earthquake aftermath draws mixed reaction from feds

Federal employees had a range of opinions on whether Washington-area agencies should have evacuated Tuesday after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Virginia about 84 miles from the nation's capital, according to dozens of comments from Government Executive readers.

"If buildings were safe to return to, then everyone should have gone back to work . . . The work we do as government employees should be an 'example' to everyone else, not the butt of everyone's jokes," said one reader. Another commented, "I felt like I was surfing on the fifth floor of my building. We received no alert notification from our agency. People took it upon themselves to evacuate."

The entire government did not officially evacuate during the event, although many agencies in the area did so either briefly or for the remainder of the day after the quake hit at 1:51 p.m.EDT. Later in the afternoon, the Office of Personnel Management instructed federal agencies in the Washington area to allow employees to leave work early.

"We felt it was in the employees' best interest to continue with the staggered early dismissal that was already occurring [at agencies], so GSA [General Services Administration] could go in and do structural examinations," said Angela Bailey, OPM's associate director for employee services.

OPM consulted with the D.C. government, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority among other local and federal agencies before issuing its decisions, she added. The government also wanted to give area federal employees the flexibility of taking unscheduled leave or teleworking on Wednesday so they could assess if they had damage in their own homes, Bailey said.

OPM announced late Wednesday that the federal agencies would be open Thursday, and employees should show up for work as scheduled.

On Wednesday, eligible employees were given the option to take unscheduled leave or to telework. About a dozen or so offices and buildings were closed for the day due to structural damage.

For a region unaccustomed to earthquakes, it's not surprising the event drew a variety of reactions from federal employees, and no small dose of derision from people who live or used to live on the West Coast, where such occurrences are much more commonplace.

"What a bunch of sissies," said a commenter. "Having lived in California for nearly 10 years, I know that a 5.8 quake is nothing to write home about. For that matter, the buildings should NOT have been evacuated, as any West Coaster will tell you, because you're far safer underneath the desk, than trapped in a stairwell or outside in the street, subject to falling glass and cinder. However, the quake hit the national panic centers, Washington and New York, so what can we expect?"

And then there was this observation from a reader: "The East Coast is 'NOT' the center of the universe, or even the United States! Life goes on!"

Ouch.

The Tuesday earthquake that hit Mineral, Va., was the strongest recorded on the East Coast since a 7.3 magnitude quake rocked Charleston, S.C., in 1886. According to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the 5.8 magnitude quake that struck the Washington area on Tuesday could cause lasting shaking and millions of dollars in damages.

During an earthquake, people should drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy table or other piece of furniture, and hold on until the shaking stops, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. People are not supposed to evacuate buildings while shaking is still happening because they are most at risk for sustaining injuries.

In April, the Education and Homeland Security departments encouraged schools, government agencies and others, to participate in the first-ever multistate earthquake drill in the central and southern United States. Nearly 30,000 federal employees in the Midwest and South registered to participate in the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut drill, including workers from DHS, the Defense Department, the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.

In a Tuesday Government Executive story, a State Department official who asked not to be named said he was in a meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building when the quake hit, and that the military personnel in the room "jumped on the table," while "people" yelled to evacuate the building.

One reader who was also in a meeting at the time did not see anyone jump on any tables during the quake.