CNN 2011-08-29

 Today we’re taking you to the Bahamas, New Hampshire, Africa and Asia, from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, I’m Carl Azuz, and this is CNN Student News. First up, a major hurricane is plowing 1 its way through the Caribbean, and it could be taking aim at the U.S. east coast. Irene has already hit Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Yesterday it was slamming the Bahamas, where locals boarded up their shops and tourists hunkered down in hotels. And they did that with good reason. 

 
Check out these satellite images. Yesterday Irene strengthened into a category 3 hurricane. Its strongest winds were around 115 miles per hour. And the National Hurricane Center expects Irene to get even stronger in the next day or two. That’s why people up and down the U.S. east coast are stocking up on supplies. They’re getting ready for Irene. 
 
Predictions say it could affect anywhere from the Carolinas up through New England. Some coastal 2 areas have already declared a state of emergency. In Washington, there are plans for a dedication 3 ceremony at the Martin Luther King Memorial on Sunday. But officials are looking at backup ideas, maybe even postponing 4 the event. It’ll just depend on what path Irene takes.
 
East Coast residents are preparing for that extreme event. But they just lived through another one. Scientists know about the seismic 5 zone in Virginia, where Tuesday’s earthquake was centered, but this tremor 6 was so rare that many people wondered if the rumbling 7 was caused by a helicopter or an explosion.
 
Brian Todd examines some of the ripple 8 effects of this unusual quake.
 
There may be an aftershock, but you’re allowed to go back in the building at this time.
 
To millions of people on the East Coast, this was the big one.
 
Can you believe that you just witnessed an earthquake in Washington, D.C.?
 
It’s the strongest quake to hit the Virginia area since 1897, a 5.8, rattling 9 nerves and shaking buildings in the nation’s capital.
 
I really and truly thought it was some kind of bomb, because I never felt nothing like that before in Washington.
 
I was on the bus, and the bus did a shimmy.
 
Well, I didn’t know what was happening. I thought the building was about to collapse 10.
 
The quake was centered near Mineral, Virginia, about 40 miles from Richmond and 83 miles from D.C.
 
The quake could be felt all the way in Martha’s Vineyard, where the president is on vacation. Shaking was felt in more than a dozen states in all, even into Canada. NBC’s cameras, focused on the White House, caught the shaking as it happened. 
 
Some of the masonry 11 of the National Cathedral fell off, and the National Park Service says engineers found a crack near the top of the Washington Monument. It will be closed indefinitely to keep visitors safe. 
 
Many government buildings, including the Pentagon, were evacuated 12, but no major damage was reported. Further north, in New York City, people ran from skyscrapers 13, down flights of stairs as they swayed.
 
The building shook back and forth 14. It actually rocked.
 
Near the epicenter of the quake, the North Anna Nuclear Power Station, the earthquake triggering an automatic shutdown there. Diesel 15 generators 16 kicked in to keep the reactor 17 cores cool. I spoke 18 to a plant executive, who wanted to make sure we knew everything was under control.
 
What do you want to say to the public, as far as right now?
 
Well, the power plant is safe. The operators responded well. Both units are shut down, maintained in a safe shutdown condition. There was no release of radioactivity.
 
Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, power from the main grid 19 was restored to the plant. That power fuels the cooling systems for the reactor and the spent fuel pools. But both reactors 20 remain shutdown. Brian Todd, CNN, Mineral, Virginia.