Aftershocks from August quake nearing 100

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) After Sunday night’s 3.1 magnitude aftershock near Mineral, VA, some residents began looking for damage.

"This can go on for months and even years,” said Jay Brown, a resident of Mineral. [WEB EXTRA: Scroll down for a full list of the magnitude of each earthquake.]

Brown is getting used to the earth shaking at his house, but he couldn't ignore Sunday night's aftershock.

“If you can imagine living in a downstairs apartment, and your neighbor upstairs drops a refrigerator on the floor, that's what it sounded and felt like.”

Brown considers himself lucky.  The worst damage he sustained from Augusts’ 5.8 magnitude quake was a crack in a retaining wall in his backyard.

But he says it's widening with each aftershock.

"I could barely put my pinky finger in, and now I can almost get my thumb in,” says Brown.

Although most of the major damage from the 5.8 magnitude earthquake in August has been fixed, it's the small cracks and breaks that could worsen with each aftershock that people in Mineral are concerned about.

The Center for Earthquake Research and Data reports that 70 aftershocks have occurred in Central Va. since August.

"Some of the people that have not fixed their interior walls say they have not fixed them because we keep having the aftershocks,” said Mineral’s Vice Mayor Bernice Wilson Kube.  “They continue to have damage.”

The deadline to register for FEMA aid was March 5^, but a spokesperson with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management says the aid is still out there.

Each county has a local emergency manager who can put people who notice potential new damage in contact with organizations who assist in earthquake repairs.

To contact your local emergency manager, you can check your local phone listings or visit the VA Department of Emergency Management’s website at vaemergency.gov and click on “Find Your Local Emergency Manager.”

"Who knows when another one is coming in?” said Josh Bressack, a resident of Mineral who was living in New York at the time of Augusts’ quake.  He felt the quake that far North, and is still wary of the aftershocks that roll through Mineral now.

Like Bressack, some in Louisa County are unsettled by each aftershock, not knowing whether it could be another big quake.

“It is scary to think, ‘what if it's worse because of the damage that it did,’” said Crystal Harris.

Chart of aftershocks and their magnitude