Virginia Auto Glass Industry Representatives React to Earthquake

One day after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Mineral, Va., with effects felt up and down the East Coast and throughout the Southern Region, several in the auto glass industry shared their reaction to the event.

David Cooper, whose company, Auto Glass Plus Inc. in Rockville, Va., is located approximately 30 minutes from the earthquake’s epicenter in Mineral, says he initially thought the sound was coming from a local rock quarry.

“Eventually we realized it wasn’t stopping,” he recalls.

The company made it through the earthquake mostly unscathed. “We had a couple pieces of our stocked flat glass break, but nothing else was damaged,” says Cooper.

Mike Carpenter, owner of Distinct Auto Glass in Fredericksburg, Va., had just returned to his shop to pick up a part when the earthquake began at 1:51 p.m. yesterday.

“I was very surprised,” he says. “I thought maybe it was just an airplane flying low, but an earthquake on this coast never would have thought of that.”

Carpenter says so far he’s only received one call for auto glass work resulting from the earthquake.

While several local reports of extensive damage have come out of the town of Culpeper, Va., which is about 30 miles from Mineral, Eric McCoy of McCoy’s Family Auto Glass, whose company is located there, says his business has seen no impact.

"We're fine," he says.