Airports from Washington to JFK shut for checks due to 5.9 earthquake in Virgina. 
Pavement checks, ok but I’m from California where 5.9 barely makes the evening news much less shuts down airports 200 miles away.
Down in South Jersey, I felt it for a good minute and a half. Just little tremors, but still more than enough to get everyone talking. Evacuated towers include DCA, PHL, EWR, JFK. For a shallow 5.9 quake, it really didn’t do a whole lot.
The noise is what surprises people the first time they experience an earthquake. Was this one very loud?
I didn’t hear anything. I was in the car eating a quick lunch and it started shaking. AT that very moment, an AH-1 Cobra flew directly over me at like 200 ft so I thought it was him…but then it kept shaking for another minute. I was a little freaked at first.
I didn’t hear anything either. I was just sitting on my couch, and everything started shaking. I thought I might have just been crazy, but everyone in the house felt it, and my uncle also called, saying he felt it. It didn’t seem like the airports would need to be shut down, but I guess safety is the main concern. Definitely my first earthquake experience, and I don’t feel the need for it to be repeated. Now I just have to worry about the hurricane…
The only noises I’ve ever heard from an earthquake were the objects (mainly, the building I’m in) that is shaken.
I was on the 7th floor of an office building in downtown DC about 82 miles from the epicenter. The noise I remember hearing was kind of a squeaking sound coming from the building itself, or maybe from the cubicle furnishings.
This was my first earthquake experience that I actually felt - I was on a subway train during a 4.5 a few years back, but never noticed because the train is always rocking with the motion of about 6.5.
I always wanted to experience about a 5.0 or so to see what it was like - yeah, pretty cool! Never thought I’d feel it here, and hope I don’t feel anything stronger around here. No real damage to my house - maybe expanded some existing cracks in the drywall plaster seams, but nothing fell or broke.
Now I just have to worry about the hurricane…
They’re fun! 
I know this is late, but yes I did notice the sound…a rumble. The first time I noticed an earthquake was a couple years ago. I live in Wilmington, DE just off the Delaware River. A couple years ago a very small quake originated in South Jersey just across the Delaware River. I was in our basement and I heard a fairly loud rumble. My first thought it was either an airplane on approach into PHL doing north ops, or was a large 18 wheeler moving truck for someone in the neighborhood. Then I felt the little rumble. So with this quake in it didn’t seem as loud, but definitely more and longer shaking.