By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Tuesday afternoon’s earthquake sent downtown merchants, diners and shoppers onto the sidewalks, wondering if what they felt was indeed the earth moving.
Heather Teeter, owner of Sweet Meadow Cafe at 118 W. Innes St., didn’t have to guess. A native of southern California, Teeter said she knew she was experiencing an earthquake as soon as her restaurant started to shake and wine glasses began to clank.
“I have never felt one in Salisbury,” she said. “I was very surprised.”
Based on what she felt, Teeter put the tremor at a 5.3 or 5.4 magnitude. Officially, the quake measured 5.9 and originated in Virginia about 80 miles from Washington D.C. The tremor was felt as far away as Toronto.
Rob Robinson, Rowan County’s communication director, said the 911 center received 75 phone calls in the first 15 minutes after the quake.
“We got bombarded,” Robinson said. “We were just getting bits and pieces.”
Robinson said the dispatch center advised callers not to dial 911 if no one was injured and there was no damage from the quake. Dispatchers also told callers to pay attention to local news outlets for any changes.
Pranksters suspected
Robin Baltimore, who was parked at the corner of Kerr and Main streets, said she thought her car needed to be serviced when it began rocking. As the movement intensified, she became concerned someone was harassing her.
“I thought someone was jumping up and down on my back bumper,” said Baltimore, spokeswoman for Rowan-Regional Medical Center.
Several commenters at www.salisburypost.com also originally blamed the tremor on a prankster shaking their car. Others said they suspected nearby construction work, heavy trucks, trains or a washing machine out of balance.
But it didn’t take people long to realize they were experiencing what for many was their first earthquake.
“We were rocking and shaking like crazy!!” Janet Ruffin, who was on the third floor of the old courthouse, posted on Facebook.
Many people turned immediately to social media to share the experience with friends.
“Watched my Facebook feed light up like a Christmas tree,” said Greg Shields, who felt the quake on the third floor of The Plaza.
Shields said he heard from friends in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C.
Businesses and institutions in cities up and down the East Coast emptied in reaction to the unusual event, and Salisbury was no exception.
Food Lion evacuated about 1,500 employees from the corporate headquarters on Harrison Road as a precaution, spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown said. They returned to work after 15 minutes, she said.
In an “abundance of caution,” about eight Food Lion, Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food stores were closed in Virginia and Maryland, Phillips-Brown said.
“We are currently performing inspections of the stores, and will work to reopen the stores as soon as possible,” she said. “However, our top priority is to ensure the safety of our facilities for associates and customers.”
Catawba evacuated
Catawba College evacuated several buildings. Spokeswoman Tonia Black-Gold said no alarms went off, but students and staff moved outside after feeling the tremors.
The Salisbury Fire Department responded to the school and gave an all clear to re-enter the buildings. Black-Gold said firefighters said the quake wasn’t significant enough to cause any damage.
“We are doing inspections of our buildings, just a walkthrough to make sure everything is OK,” she said.
Black-Gold said a campus alert was sent out to student and staff to inform them of the incident.
“We also told them if you smell any odor of see any damage to please alert the proper authorities, but we don’t anticipate we will get a lot of calls,” she said. “Everybody’s back to work now.”
Rowan County Clerk of Court Jeff Barger said he was in his office on the phone when he felt the shaking.
“I thought, ‘Oh My God,’ ” he said.
Court proceedings were not affected.
Earl Newman, who runs Growing Pains Family Consignment with his family, lived in California for 12 years and experienced between six and eight earthquakes. He said he knew what was going on when he felt the floor shaking as he folded clothes Tuesday just before 2 p.m.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was the starting of an earthquake,” Newman said he told his daughter.
He compared the earthquake to an aftershock in California and said he hoped it hadn’t caused any damage. By Tuesday night, there were widespread reports of minor damage and no injuries.
Newman’s son-in-law, William Gordon, said he was helping a customer when the back wall started shaking and he suspected someone was messing with the jewelry box. The sensation was similar to vertigo and made him feel kind of sick, Gordon said.
“It was a little scary,” he said.
Rap recording stops
Mardsen Haigh said he thought someone was tapping the back of his chair during the Rotary meeting. He realized he’d been in his first quake as he walked back to Superior Insurance in downtown and heard three people on their cell phones describing the event.
Three musicians were preparing to record a Christian hip hop CD in a second-floor music studio downtown when the walls and ceiling started shaking.
“It scared me to death,” Galen Anderson said.
His brother, Synphany Anderson, was on the phone with a friend in Winston-Salem. The friend began yelling they were having an earthquake and telling people to leave the building.
Synphany Anderson listened in disbelief when suddenly the studio began shaking and he could see lightposts swaying on Innes Street. He grabbed his daughter, Mikayla Young, and rushed to tell his brother and their friend, Jordan Copas, they needed to evacuate.
“It was my job to get the family out,” he said, the oldest brother.
The musicians said they had more work to do but decided to call it a day.
“The earthquake messed it up,” Copas said.
Instead, they went to Hap’s for hotdogs.
Like ‘Poltergeist’
Crystal Merck, a curriculum coach at Hurley Elementary School, was preparing her classroom for her students’ return when she felt what she said sounded like a freight train coming through her mobile unit.
“I ran outside because I thought my trailer was going to fall over,” she said. “The trinkets on the top of my bookshelf slid off and a plaque on my wall got knocked down.”
Merck said she was more alarmed than scared.
“I told my friends it was like ‘Poltergeist’ because things were sliding around,” she said.
Even on a windy day, Merck said her classroom doesn’t typically move the way it did during the earthquake.
“At first I thought it was a tornado, but then I realized it was sunny,” she said. “I didn’t realize it was an earthquake until I went inside the building and saw the news.”
Merck said she was joking around with her fellow teachers after the incident.
“We were laughing because we teach our kids that we don’t really have to worry about earthquakes,” she said. “But look here, I guess we have a new teaching point.”
N.C. Rep. Fred Steen said he didn’t know what was happening when he felt the tremor at F&M bank in China Grove. While sitting in the drive-through line, Steen thought that something was wrong with his vehicle or the wind was blowing it around.
“Then I assumed someone outside of my rear view mirror sight was joking with me pushing me vehicle from side to side,” Steen said. “My last thought was I was experiencing inner ear trouble because the ground was moving and I wasn’t… or was I? Now that is a lot of thinking in 30 seconds, even for me.”
Steen called it a “weird experience,” a common refrain throughout Rowan County Tuesday afternoon.
Reporters Sarah Campbell, Nathan Hardin, Shavonne Potts and Karissa Minn contributed to this article.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.