Achi news desk-
NEW YORK –
An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area on Friday morning, the US Geological Survey said, with residents across the Northeast reporting rumblings in a region where people are not used to feeling the ground movement.
The agency reported an earthquake at 10:23 am with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, centered near Lebanon, New Jersey, or about 45 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia. USGS figures showed that the earthquake could have been felt by more than 42 million people.
New York City’s emergency notification system said in a social media post more than 30 minutes after the quake that it had no reports of damage or injuries in the city. Mayor Eric Adams had been briefed on the earthquake, said his spokesman Fabien Levy, adding, “Although we have no reports of major impacts at this time, we are still assessing the impact.”
In midtown Manhattan, the usual cacophony of traffic grew louder as motorists honked their horns on momentarily quivering streets. Some Brooklyn residents heard a boom and their building shook. In an apartment house in Manhattan’s East Village, a more earthquake-prone California resident calmed nervous neighbors.
People in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Connecticut and other areas of the Northeast reported shaking. Tremors that lasted for several seconds were felt over 200 miles away near the border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
This image provided by the US Geological Survey shows the epicenter of an earthquake on the East Coast of the United States on Thursday, April 5, 2024. (US Geological Survey via AP)
In New York City’s Astoria neighborhood, Cassondra Kurtz was giving a 14-year-old Chihuahua a cocoa butter rub for her dry skin. Kurtz was videotaping the moment, as a daily reminder of the dog’s older years, when his apartment began to shake hard enough that a 9ft (2.7m tall) mirror audibly banged against a wall.
Kurtz at first thought it was a big truck passing by.
“I’m from Jersey, so I’m not used to earthquakes,” he later explained.
The video caught her looking around, confused. Chiki, however, was “absolutely pain-free.”
At a coffee shop in lower Manhattan, customers buzzed over the unexpected earthquake, which rattled crockery and rattled the concrete counter. “I noticed the door was shaking on its frame,” said India Hays, a barista. “I thought for sure there couldn’t be an earthquake here.”
Solomon Byron was sitting on a park bench in Manhattan’s East Village when he felt an unfamiliar rumble. “I felt this vibration, and I was just like, where is that vibration coming from,” Byron said. “There are no trains near here or anything like that.” Byron said he didn’t realize there had been an earthquake until he got the alert on his mobile phone.
The White House said in a statement that US President Joe Biden had been briefed on the earthquake and was “in contact with federal, state and local officials as we learn more.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul posted on X that the earthquake was felt throughout the state. “My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will be updating the public throughout the day,” Hochul said.
Philadelphia police asked people not to call 911 about seismic activity unless reporting an emergency. Pennsylvania Gov. said. Josh Shapiro that state officials are monitoring the situation. A spokesman for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is aware of any reports of damage in that state.
The shaking stirred memories of the August 23, 2011 earthquake that shook tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada. Registering a magnitude of 5.8, it was the strongest earthquake to hit the East Coast since World War II. The epicenter was in Virginia.
That earthquake left cracks in the Washington Monument, triggered the evacuation of the White House and Capitol and shook New York three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Jake Offenhartz in New York City and Seth Borenstein in Washington.
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