Eyewitness: Seattle earthquake

The quake caused widespread damage and was felt in Vancouver

People who experienced Wednesday's earthquake in the north-western US state of Washington have been emailing accounts of the event and its aftermath to BBC News Online.

Rosanna Greenwood said she had been trapped on the 40th floor of an office building in downtown Seattle during the quake.

"I waited patiently under my desk for the building to stop moving, which really did seem to take hours," she said.

When the shaking was at its worst, I had a vision of Godzilla attacking our building

Rosanna Greenwood

"In reality, the shaking lasted about one minute, or less. When the shaking was at its worst, I had a vision of Godzilla attacking our building.

She said when the quake had ended, they were unable to leave the building because the lifts had been stopped.

"Fortunately, a couple of us had supplies of chocolate, and then we discovered that the caterer for a luncheon meeting had delivered the food just minutes prior to the earthquake."

She said she was one of the fortunate ones, in that when she eventually managed to get home, her house was still intact.

Jim Hodges described the experience as "pretty scary". He said his office had shaken badly and he was forced to take cover under his desk.

Thankfully, he said, there had been no aftershocks.

"There is some structural damage in the area (Seattle, Olympia), but no buildings have fallen down or anything like that," Mr Hodges said.

I'll tell you though, it was pretty scary

Jim Hodges

"I checked on my apartment today and some pictures were at strange angles, and some books on the floor, but otherwise all is okay".

The quake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter Scale and had an epicentre a little over 50km from Seattle city centre, was felt as far away as Vancouver.

Michael Peare, e-mailing from the Canadian city said the building he was in at the time shook for a few seconds.

Vancouver is patting itself on the back for being "the most prepared City in North America" for this eventuality

Michael Peare

"Coquitlam lost its power, this is a suburb of Vancouver about 30km to the east. My boss was in his sixteenth floor apartment in Coquitlam at the time and he's still shaking," Mr Peare said.

"The phones were down as a lot of people made panic calls, and even the cellular phones no longer worked. Vancouver is patting itself on the back for being 'the most prepared City in North America'. Of course we were miles away from the epicentre and we haven't had 'the big one yet'."

State Senator Jim Kastama was in a meeting with fellow Democrats on the third floor of the Washington state Capitol building in Olympia when the quake struck.

"Everyone jumped under the table," he told the Associated Press news agency.

"People were very scared. Everyone was clutching on to one another underneath the table, just hoping for it to end."

Sen Kastama he heard things falling and breaking, and then the lights went out.

Construction worker Harold Martin was on a plank in an airshaft at a building under construction in downtown Seattle.

"It slammed us around," he told AP. "We kept getting banged around," Mr Martin said.

When the shaking stopped they got out through an escape hatch.