An earthquake 396.09 miles from Albany, NY that registered 5.8 on the Richter scale hit Virginia Tue., Aug. 23 at 1:51 p.m., and was felt all the way in our area. The WGXC studio in Hudson shook for several minutes, and afterwards people spilled out onto the sidewalks around the Public Square in Hudson. On Facebook and Twitter, several local institutions reported they also felt the tremors here, including the Historic Olana site in Greenport, Bard College in Tivoli, and the Etsy office in Hudson. No local damage from the earthquake has been reported, though ColumbiaPage, the site of Columbia County volunteer fire fighters, reports on their Twitter feed that all county buildings were checked and clear for occupation except for the Department of Social Servives building in Hudson, which is being checked for structural damage. WTEN television station in Albany reports that earlier this morning, at 6:35 a.m., there was a 2.2 magnitude quake in Altamont, NY, roughly 16 miles from Albany. Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Rachel Racusen requested people stay off their cell phones. “Due to overload of cell phone usage, there are reports of cell phone congestion," she said. "We request that members of the public use email or text messages if possible to communicate for the next few hours, except in cases of emergency, so that emergency officials can continue to receive and respond to urgent calls."