New York feels the earth move in 4.8 quake

Residents told to stay away from high-rise buildings after one of biggest quakes on East Coast for a century

US CorreSpondent

NEW YORKERS were told to stay away from high-rise buildings after a rare earthquake struck Manhattan yesterday morning.

The 4.8-magnitude tremor shook the city at 10:23am, with rumbling felt as far along the east coast as Baltimore.

The epicentre of the quake was near

Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, about 45 miles west of New York City. About 42 million people are expected to have felt the ground move.

Joe Biden, the US president, spoke to Phil Murphy, the New Jersey governor, shortly after the quake hit, and the White House said it will provide assistance if needed.

A beeping text alert went out to New Yorkers nearly 40 minutes after the earthquake struck.

While no major damage was reported, Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, warned of the possibility of aftershocks and urged residents to take the threat “seriously”.

“This is one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century,” she said, adding that people should “stay away from buildings, especially our high rises” if there are further tremors.

New York is home to hundreds of skyscrapers measuring over 150m tall.

Later, in a news conference, New York City mayor Eric Adams urged residents to “go about their normal day”.

He said no major injuries or damage had been reported but urged city residents to take cover if they feel any further shaking.

Mr Adams also said that everyone in the city had felt the earthquake, before going on to say he hadn’t noticed anything.

“All of us felt, in some way or another, the earthquake hit our city at around 10:23am,” he told reporters.

Asked where he was when the quake struck, Mr Adams said: “I was at [a]

‘I asked if claiming there’d been a natural disaster was a new TikTok trend as I didn’t believe anyone’

youth gun summit and I didn’t feel it, my security detail brought it to my attention.”

Others didn’t notice the tremors amid the chaos of Manhattan traffic, with some people initially thinking the reports were a practical joke.

Jessica Anne, 30, who works in finance, was buying an iced coffee near Madison Square Park when the tremor struck.

“I was getting loads of messages about the earthquake but I felt nothing,” she said. “I asked my friend if claiming there’d been a natural disaster was a new TikTok trend because I didn’t believe anyone.”

However,many people reported seeing their walls shake and books fall off the shelves.

Miranda Levy, a writer in Queens, said the quake lasted about 30 seconds. “I was upstairs in the attic bedroom when the noise happened again,” she added. “But this was more than just a faint rattle. It started getting louder and louder, and the walls and floor started to shake. At first I thought I was imagining it, but it soon became clear I wasn’t.”

Celebrities also posted on social media about the ground rumbling.

Jessica Chastain, the actress and producer, wrote.”Did we just have an earthquake?! NYC,” while Lily Allen said: “Was that an earthquake in Brooklyn? That was insane.”

Yesterday’s earthquake was the largest in the city since the 2011 5.8-magnitude quake in Virginia that led to evacuations of City Hall and caused damage in Washington.