Northwestern Students Evacuated After Quake

Students at were milling outside on the Adelphi Road campus this afternoon, waiting for buses, parents and other ways to get home after the school was evacuated due to today’s earthquake.

Many of them were in long pants and polo shirts, standing under the thin trees in front of the school to get out of the late August sun.

They were hot after being outside for over an hour. No one offered them water, some said.

Teachers were stationed around the area making sure everyone was OK, and a male voice could be heard over a bullhorn.

Police from Hyattsville and University Park patrolled the parking lot, blocking the south entrance and directing traffic, which was backed up down Adelphi.

A Hyattsville police officer on duty said there were no problems with the evacuation and no students complained to him of the heat or anything else.

Gina Williams is a parent of a ninth-grader at Northwestern.

“I was on my way to work in Silver Spring, and I felt nothing. I didn’t hear anything," she said. "I didn’t realize it until I got to work and everybody was in a panic telling me that there was an earthquake.

Williams said her daughter called her around 3:30 p.m. to let her know that school was dismissed early.