'The whole room just started to shake': Rare 4.7 earthquake hits New York as residents report 'crazy' tremor
5 April 2024, 16:02 | Updated: 5 April 2024, 18:26
A New York resident has described the "crazy" shaking from a rare earthquake that rocked the city, as well as parts of Connecticut and New Jersey.
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The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.7, rocked the US tri-state area, centred near Lebanon, New Jersey. People in Baltimore, Philadelphia and other areas also reported feeling the tremor.
The epicentre was just north-east of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, about 50 miles from Manhattan.
Milly, a New York resident, told LBC: "It was crazy, I am working from home and we live in an apartment over 20 floors up in Brooklyn.
"The whole room just started to shake & I had no idea what was going on.
"It was only after, I fully realised what had happened as there was a a load of commotion outside."
The Fire Department of New York said there were no initial reports of any major damage.
New York governor Kathy Hochul said: "My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day."
Read more: More than 70 miners trapped in two rock quarries after earthquake strikes Taiwan
Actress Busy Phillips posted online: “Like guys. i think there was an earthquake in nyc.”
Hollywood A-lister Jessica Chastain, who is also in the city, wrote: "Did we just have an earthquake?! NYC"
A UN Security Council meeting on Gaza at its New York HQ had to be paused due to the tremor.
Many incoming flights at the three major airports serving New York were diverted from landing because of the earthquake.
The tunnel connecting lower Manhattan with New Jersey via the Hudson River has been temporarily closed to traffic so it can be inspected for damage.
Local train services were also delayed by the earthquake.
Officials said the earthquake was not going to trigger a tsunami on the east coast.
Joe Biden has been briefed on the earthquake, the president's press secretary said.
The shaking stirred memories of the August 23 2011 earthquake that jolted tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada.
Registering magnitude 5.8, it was the strongest quake to hit the East Coast since the Second World War. The epicentre was in Virginia.
That earthquake left cracks in the Washington Monument, spurred the evacuation of the White House and Capitol and rattled New Yorkers three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
