4.8 magnitude earthquake shakes the US Northeast

 

An earthquake in New Jersey sent shockwaves up the densely populated Northeast corridor Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said, with residents across the Eastern Seaboard reporting they felt rumbling.

The agency reported a quake at 10:23 a.m. with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 centered near Lebanon, New Jersey, about 45 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia.

The earthquake was felt throughout New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland and as far as Massachusetts-New Hampshire border over 200 miles away. More than 42 million in the region likely felt the ground shake, according to U.S.G.S. figures.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Newark and JFK airports, NBC New York reports. In midtown Manhattan, the usual cacophony of traffic grew louder as motorists blared their horns on momentarily shuddering streets. Some Brooklyn residents heard a booming sound and their building shaking.

Attorney Finn Dusenbery was in a law office in midtown Manhattan when he felt the building shake.

“The building shook and I thought that the ceiling above me was going to collapse,” Dusenbery told The Associated Press. “I did think that maybe the building was going to fall down for a second, and I wanted to get out of the building when I felt that.”