The 5.8 magnitude earth quake that struck Virginia and rattled the east coast earlier this week made for a motorist nightmare in Washington D.C.: Yahoo News Article.  Those who tried to make phone calls around 2pm that afternoon also encountered another unusual situation - they couldn't reach anyone, apparently as a result of an overload of people calling loved ones to make sure they were ok, or to find out what was going on.  Interestingly, text messaging and other apps on my iPhone worked fine.  We apparently did not have enough bandwidth to handle the call volume in the region.  Now, with a hurricane heading our way, are we prepared?