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Locals are urged to stay inside following the earthquake in New York
“I’ve never experienced such a strong earthquake. I did experience some before but it was nothing compared to that. The whole house was really shaking. The bed was shaking, the house was making rumbling noises,” she said.
An earthquake shook New York on Friday, rattling furniture, briefly grounding planes, and unsettled politicians at the UN Security Council. The city never sleeps.
A few while later, the sound of the emergency warning system verifying the earthquake blared on the cell phones of numerous ambassadors.
“Residents are advised to remain indoors and to call 911 if injured,” the emergency alert said.
Flight operations were halted at several airports in the region including New York’s La Guardia, Philadelphia and Newark in New Jersey.
“Air traffic operations are resuming as quickly as possible,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
No one was hurt, though, and New York’s iconic skyline remained intact.
“I AM FINE,” reported the Empire State Building on its X account.
The tremor had a 4.8 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Near the epicenter in Lebanon, New Jersey, store supervisor Dominika Uniejewska, 50, said “I’m still shaking” after being woken up by the quake.
“I’ve never experienced such a strong earthquake. I did experience some before but it was nothing compared to that. The whole house was really shaking. The bed was shaking, the house was making rumbling noises,” she said.
“I ran to check on my dog. The dog was okay.”
In Brooklyn, buildings shook, rattling cupboard doors and fixtures, an AFP correspondent reported.
At the United Nations, which has its headquarters in New York, a Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza was temporarily paused after the tremor.
“Is that an earthquake?” said Save the Children representative Janti Soeripto who was speaking at the time. One diplomat joked: “One for the memoirs.”
New York Earthquake anxieties
Social media users jokingly questioned whether an earthquake coming days before the April 8 solar eclipse, which will be visible across swathes of the northeastern United States, heralded the end of the world.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul acknowledged New Yorkers were “not accustomed” to earthquakes and – at a hastily convened press briefing — warned residents to be wary of any possible aftershocks.
Vanguard News
