This was in Woodbridge, 58 miles northwest of the epicenter in Mineral, VA. It shook for a solid 20–30 seconds, followed by softer rumblings for another 30 seconds. The video starts 10–15 seconds after the quake first hit.

I’ve felt one or two minor quakes in the years that i’ve lived in Northern Virginia, as well as the big ’89 in San Francisco and others in Kodiak, Alaska when i was younger, but something this strong on the East Coast was just unreal.

As i’m posting this at midnight, i have not seen any other videos shot live during the earthquake. #Exclusive!

20110824-01:29 Update: USGS has clocked 4 aftershocks so far, ranging in magnitude from 2.2 to 4.2. I’ve felt at least the two stronger ones in Woodbridge.

NoVA Infinite, Kenny Kohlhaas & Minh – Live at IOTA

Recorded on a Sony HDR-FX7 HDV camcorder with the built-in mic, so the video is noisy and the audio is a little loud. While that was on a tripod, i was also shooting stills and video around the room with my new Canon 7D DSLR. I wasn’t depending on it for anything crucial since i’d only had it about a week and wasn’t fully comfortable yet, and also didn’t have enough cards to record everything.

No power outtage here so far. The utilities in this area are pretty much all buried, so they wouldn’t be affected by falling trees or being weighted down by snow and ice.

Monday, 08:50: Aerial photos of DC covered in snow from the US Park Police [via @myfoxdc].

Saturday, 08:09: I’d guess about 16–18″ and still coming down.

@miahz

Definitely stuck. But i got half a tank of gas and 6lbs of gummi bears. #snoWTF

Friday, 18:26: @miahz

Dale blvd west from I-95 is backed up cuz people like me can’t get up the hill.

Friday, 17:32: Driving in the snow, testing out my car headrest camera mount.

Around 5pm when it started to get darker and colder, things began to go as all the predictions were saying.

This guy got a little too excited:

via @Cizauskas

Finally, a hashtag i can dig:

#snowtoriousbig

Spotted on that VisibleTweets site.

Friday, 15:44: By Friday afternoon, it had been snowing all day, but nothing was sticking and there was no real accumulation. @miahz

All you school kids got a freebie today. You’ll have to pay that back at the end of the year when the weather’s nice.

Friday, 13:40: This “kinetic typography” visualization of storm-related tweets would make a cool screensaver: VisibleTweets [via @danr].

Friday, 12:53: Snow plows were on-deck on Cardinal Dr in Woodbridge.

Friday, 12:33: @miahz

Though, to be fair, nothing’s sticking yet. #snowmageddon #ihatethattag

Friday, 12:28: @miahz

No matter how you slice it this is going to be historical snowfall for DMV http://bit.ly/bXoK73

I think i woke up and peeked out the window around 7am and it wasn’t snowing yet. But i think it was coming down steady from about 9am.

Friday, 01:14: @miahz

In all likelihood it’ll be snowing the next time i look out my window.

Thursday, 20:53: The Potomac Mills Wegmans parking was full from shoppers stocking up before the storm hits.

I parked and got in line at 12:30 yesterday afternoon. The parking lot was already overflowing, cars parked along the side of the road, the line of voters looped back and forth around the entire side of the building. Volunteers handed out absentee application forms to the people joining the end of the line. Filling out the form took up all of two minutes. People yelled and honked from cars passing by. After one hour i was back on the side of the building where i had started, but one loop closer.

There was some questionable campaigning around the polling location by volunteers passing out leftover Halloween candy and bottles of water “courtesy of the Obama campaign.” Supposedly, there is supposed to be a 100ft campaign-free neutral zone around polling places, where campaigning is not allowed. These volunteers canvassed the line extending into the parking lot and all the way up to the front door.

The sky was clear, so standing out in the sun for hours became hot and exhausting. There was no shade in the loop of the line on the side of the building. Many anticipated the long lines and brought fold-up chairs and magazines; some called friends to deliver food while they were stuck in line; the children around me managed to entertain themselves with hide and seek.

4 PM. After 3 and a half hours there was a small sense of victory: finally getting inside the building. But it was quickly dashed seeing another line wrapping around the inside of the DMV waiting area. We were shepherded into the building in metered groups — presumably to stay within the building’s 120 maximum occupancy. Each group was seated into a row of the DMV’s waiting chairs, while a volunteer checked that our absentee applications were completed correctly. One more hour around the room.

5:05 PM. You’d think i would have had that oasis-in-the-desert sense of relief when i finally reached the voting room. But i didn’t. I was appalled to see four empty voting machines. Hundreds of people have been waiting in line the entire afternoon to press three buttons (which takes all of 30 seconds), and the machines were not even being used. For some reason there was a bottleneck with the ladies checking the applications online before you’re approved to vote. After standing on deck for a minute, i was called to a desk with my application and driver’s license. My ID check took a minute then i was sent to one of the electronic voting machines. I was the only person using any of the four machines for a three minute period. Do the math.

I spoke with a few other people that voted earlier Saturday morning and on Thursday at the Woodbridge location, and they said the voting machines were all being used. Maybe i just came in at the wrong time, but slack like that cannot be allowed when there are a thousand people waiting in line. Regular voting on Tuesday may be less congested, as the burden will be spread throughout all local districts and there won’t be absentee applications to verify. The DMV on Saturday was slammed with the majority of Prince William County’s last-minute in-person absentee voters. The poll officially closed at 5 PM, but the line still tailed around the side of the building as i left the parking lot at 5:15.

Check out more photos and video on my Flickr set from when i was in line to vote. And please go vote on Tuesday.