The whole of Queens shook after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck almost 300 miles away in Virginia on Tuesday, August 23 at approximately 2 p.m.
Not just Queens, but in fact the entire Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. was shaken by the quake, with reports of tremors coming from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts and even in Detroit and Toronto.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the temblor occurred at 1:51 p.m. and the epicenter was placed at four miles south of Mineral, Virginia or 83 miles southwest of Washington D.C. and at a shallow depth of less than 1 mile.
Here in Queens, residents couldn’t speak to specifics but they were sure that something had definitely occurred.
“I felt the earthquake. It was weird. I didn’t know what to do. I just sat there,” said Lisa Heron of Springfield Gardens. “I was a little bit shocked and relieved when it stopped.”
Elliot Cowan of Bayside was sure it was either construction or the train.
“I thought,’ should I stay or should I go?’ he said. “Then I realized it was fine. It was marginally frightening, but not really.”
A parking attendant in the Time Warner Cable building in downtown Flushing thought he forgot to put a car in park until he realized something was wrong.
“I thought I didn’t put the car in park because it kept moving,” he said. “I was in park, but it was the ground that was moving!”
Alex Kim, an ROTC cadet at Fort Totten was working and saw some cages in a stock room start to shake but Kim, who is from California, said this quake doesn’t compare to the ones back home.
“California has earthquakes I can feel,” he said. “In New York we have ones I can see.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after the quake that he’d spoken with city police and fire commissioners, and that they’ve activated the Office of Emergency Management’s Situation Room and spoken to other city agencies, including the Department of Buildings.
“Thankfully, there are no reports of significant damage or injuries in New York City at this time. As ever, we urge New Yorkers to call 911 only in cases of actual emergencies,” said the mayor. “Shortly before 2 p.m., we evacuated City Hall briefly, but quickly returned to work. As we await more news from Virginia and elsewhere, our thoughts in New York are with those who were more directly affected by this natural disaster.”
At a press conference following the quake, Bloomberg said that after a brief delay, all area airports have resumed regular schedules, as has all MTA lines. He also stated that the city was investigating two minor structural incidents.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said that “the state is initiating comprehensive reviews of critical and sensitive infrastructure including the state’s hydroelectric plants, nuclear power plants, key bridges and tunnels, and other assets. I am getting regular reports from agencies all over the state and at this time there are no reports of damage or power outages.”
Professor Alan Ludman, a professor at Queens College’s School of Earth and Environmental Science, said that the quake was “impressive, but not significant.”
“The problem we face on Long Island is that the earth here is just a mass of sand and gravel dumped here by the last Ice Age,” he said, guessing that the city’s quake measured at around 2.5 on the Richter Scale. “When an earthquake hits this environment, it amplifies the shaking.” – With additional reporting by Michael Pantelidis
