Reston was shaken up yesterday at exactly 1:51 p.m. when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit the east coast.

Living in Virginia, most Restonians were caught off guard by this rare occurrence.

“I was working at Chili’s and all the customers started freaking out and I had to calm them down,” said senior Aren Durana. “It only lasted for a few seconds, but everyone was panicking because they didn’t know what was going on.”

Even though earthquakes are uncommon in this area of the United States, for some students, like senior Brody Bolanos, this quick quake was nothing compared to past experiences.

“This [earthquake] was lame” said Bolanos. “[When I was in Costa Rica] pieces of the building fell off and we went into the street. But to most people it wasn’t a big deal because they get good sized earthquakes all the time.”

Although no one was harmed, multiple buildings, cars and houses experienced minor damage as a result of the quaver.  At South Lakes a few cracks were found along the dry wall of the main hallways.

Compared to other natural disasters like the Japan quake, this earthquake was miniscule. But according to the United States Geological Survey, this past incident may only be the beginning. More earthquakes, or even worse, may be heading towards Reston in the near future.

“Considering that we are on the east coast and plates are constantly shifting, I would suspect that there would be more in the future,” said physical education teacher Sheila Colbert-Alzate. “I don’t see why it shouldn’t happen again.”