The factory vented steam

Washington (CNN) -- The Washington Monument was closed indefinitely Wednesday as engineers studied ways to repair cracks at the top of the capital's iconic structure -- an day after a infrequent 5.8-magnitude East Coast earthquake.

Among other things, several pieces of mortar fell inside the monument's reconnaissance place during the earthquake, a National Parks Service spokesman said.

An outside structural engineering fixed will behave a extra thorough damage appraisal,Oakley Sunglasses outlet, and the monument may not be re-opened to the public until after whichever necessary repairs are completed, the speaker joined.

Washington's National Cathedral also was closed afterward sustaining what its staff depicted for "actual break," including many cracks in the building's limestone blocks and broken pinnacles above its fortresses.

Most federal buildings and memorials in Washington, although,######## Oakleys, had reopened by late Tuesday -- including the Lincoln and Jefferson monuments.

The quake struck at 1:51 p.m. Tuesday near the town of Mineral, Virginia, about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. Just 3.7 miles deep, it was felt from Georgia to northern New England.

No important injuries or vast damage were swiftly reported, but the quiver prompted evacuations of numerous bureau structures -- including the U.S. Capitol -- and affected operations at a nuclear power vegetation in Virginia.

Local officials across many of the Eastern Seaboard scrambled to make sure what, whether any, damage had been inflicted in manifold cities and states. North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue on Wednesday a.m. announced a "cursory inspection" of state buildings.

Some damage was reported at either the navel educate and tall school near the epicenter of the quake in Mineral, where a pair of houses also collapsed.

"It's still kind of a state of shell impact here," CNN's Brian Todd said Wednesday, reporting from the town. "People still fair can't deem this happened. This is a natural event that equitable does not happen on the East Coast."

With so numerous by the seashore unaccustomed apt earthquakes, numerous folk were left surprising if always namely rumbling could have been caused at a truck, helicopter, one blast alternatively some other compel.

Desi Fleming, a resident of Mineral, said the quake arrived with a rumbling "that sounded like a exercise coming to a stop." It knocked down two chimneys on the converted 1900-vintage family that immediately houses her parcel-shipping affair.

Kate Duddy was alone in an office creating elevator in Manhattan while the shaking began.

"I have never felt a quake before. It was scary having no mind what the cause was," she said. "I felt the vibrations, and the elevator stopped as a time of almost five minutes."

At Washington's National Zoo, some animals started reacting moments before the earthquake was felt by their person caretakers.

About 5 or 10 seconds ahead the globe shook, several apes relinquished their food and ascended to the altitude of a treelike architecture, along to a expression from the zoo. A gorilla appointed Mandara caught her baby -- appointed Kibibi -- and likewise migrated to the altitude of the structure.

At the same time, a flock of 64 flamingos grouped themselves attach and remained huddled until the shaking stopped.

Further south, the earthquake triggered an auto shutdown of Virginia's North Anna nuclear power plant after it lost electricity. Primary power was fast reinstated to the cooling systems of two nuclear reactors that had been affected, according to Dominion Virginia Power.

The plant, located less than 20 miles from the earthquake's epicenter, briefly resorted to the use of back-up diesel generators, the company said. Dan Stoddard,Cheap Oakley Sunglasses, Dominion's senior vice premier of nuclear operations, said there was no damage to the spent fuel pond at the plant.

The plant vented steam, but there was no loosen of radioactive material, according to Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach.

An emergency declaration at the plant was cancelled presently after 1 afternoon Wednesday, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Officials at the NRC, however, said they would persist to monitor the situation.

The quake also triggered low-level alerts at 12 other nuclear facilities across the East Coast and Michigan, U.S. authorities reported. All of those alerts were quickly cancelled, however.

Tuesday's incident occurred in a known seismic region in central Virginia, said Dave Russ of the U.S. Geological Survey. But the strength of the earthquake was a morsel startling. A 5.9 event occurred in 1897 approach Blacksburg, Virginia, he said.
CNN's Vito Maggiolo, Chris Lawrence, Susan Candiotti, Dan Lothian, Joe Sutton, Jim Acosta, Larry Shaughnessy, Matt Smith, Sarah Aarthun,Cheap Oakleys, Carol Cratty, Phil Gast, Dugald McConnell, Dana Ford, Lindy Royce-Bartlett, Catherine Shoichet and Tom Watkins contributed to this report.