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Millions of people on the East Coast got shaken up this morning. A magnitude 4.8 earthquake made the region tremble. The epicenter was in new Jersey, about 40 miles west of New York City. People reported feeling the shaking from New England all the way down to Virginia. NPR's Jasmine Garsd has more.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: It happened around 10:30 this morning. Buildings across New York City started trembling. Alex Rodas-Neira lives in Brooklyn. She's originally from a region in Ecuador with a lot of tremors. She says at first, she didn't think this could be an earthquake, not in New York.
ALEX RODAS-NEIRA: I was sleeping, and it - something startled me. I felt something shaking. I thought it was the subway that's close by, but it continued to shake.
GARSD: Rojas-Neda says she went out to the street with other startled neighbors. Earthquakes are rare in this region. There have been three magnitude 5.0 earthquakes in the New Jersey area in the last several hundred years. The last one happened in 1884. The U.S. Geological Survey says today's tremor may have been a very old, inactive fault that was reactivated. And because of the rock properties on the East Coast, earthquakes are felt much further from the epicenter than in the West Coast. Sam Baez in Newark says he was in an online meeting with several people from cities across the East Coast when it hit.
SAM BAEZ: We're all hearing this rumbling shake, and it wouldn't stop. And, you know, it took a minute for us to realize collectively, like, did you feel something? Oh, no. I'm in Jersey. I felt something, too.
GARSD: Ten families have been displaced due to the damage in three row homes in Newark. The Fire Department of New York has said it is evaluating structural stability of buildings that reported shaking. But there are no major incidents at this time. The subways are running normally. The U.S. Geological Survey says there have been at least two aftershocks and there could be more. There is only a 3% chance of a magnitude 5 or greater aftershock in the next week. Shortly after the quake, New York City Mayor Eric Adams spoke at a press conference.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ERIC ADAMS: And if you feel an aftershock, drop to the floor. Cover your head and neck. And take cover under a solid piece of furniture next to an interior wall or in a doorway.
GARSD: It's a refrain many in earthquake-prone regions like California are familiar with. In case of earthquakes, duck, cover, hold. Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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