Workers on Parliament Hill wait for the buildings to re-open following an earthquake in Ottawa.
The June earthquake that was felt by more than 20 million people in Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern U.S. rattled more than just the ground.
Documents obtained under Access to Information show that within minutes of the 5.0 magnitude quake, Natural Resources Canada's website was paralyzed by over a million hits.
The agency was so overwhelmed that it had to enlist the help of the U.S. Geological Survey in order to get the information out to Canadians.
The director of the Canadian Hazards Information Service says the size, time and location of the quake produced far more traffic than normal.
David McCormack says the fact the quake wasn't strong enough to knock out power and happened in the middle of a workday meant people were flocking online at the same time to figure out what was happening.
But he says the crash did raise concerns at the agency about the issue arising again and several fixes have since been put in place.