Strength 4.8
Earthquake shakes region around New York
The US metropolis of New York. photo
© John Minchillo/AP/dpa
A shock: the earth shook around the metropolis of New York. There are initially no reports of damage. The Empire State Building announces: “I’m fine.”
An earthquake has hit the region around the metropolis New York shaken. There were initially no reports of injuries or property damage. According to the responsible US authorities, the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.8 and occurred at a depth of 4.7 kilometers. The epicenter was therefore near the town of Lebanon in the US state of New Jersey, about 65 kilometers west of the city of New York.
“This was one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in 100 years,” said New York State Governor Kathy Hochul. The inspections of infrastructure and the search for damage are taken “extremely seriously”. “Fortunately, we are masters of disasters here in New York. We know how to deal with them.”
According to reports, the quake was felt for about a minute in a wide radius around the epicenter and along the coast from Baltimore to Boston, around 600 kilometers further north. In Manhattan it arrived as a slight rumble, but still startled many people. Dogs started barking and many people left their houses. The tremors were also clearly felt in the Brooklyn district: “The entire building shook,” said a resident in the Greenpoint district. Her neighbor said she had never been so scared.
Traffic restricted in the New York region
Several airports in the affected area temporarily stopped take-off and landing to check the runways for possible damage. Several tunnels and train routes were also temporarily partially closed for inspections. Warnings on cell phones informed people in the region and made them aware of the possibility of aftershocks.
US President Joe Biden had been informed about the quake, the White House said. He is in contact with his team, which is monitoring the possible effects. New York Mayor Eric Adams was also informed. “We currently have no reports of major impacts, but we are continuing to assess,” said his spokesman Fabien Levy. The New York fire department and police initially had no information about any damage.
No extensive damage so far
Numerous schools and kindergartens immediately informed parents that everything was fine. “The only thing that fell was a box of tissues,” said one elementary school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
The quake was also felt at the UN headquarters in eastern Manhattan when the Security Council was meeting to discuss the conflict in the Middle East. The chairwoman of the non-governmental organization Save the Children, Janti Soeripto, who was speaking, paused. “You are making the ground shake,” commented the Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour. The operators of the famous Empire State Building commented on the skyscraper via the online portal