Much of New York City was shaken by an earthquake on Friday morning that shut down some transit options and forced a brief ground stop for all flights out of the region’s international airports, federal authorities said.
The earthquake’s magnitude was estimated to be 4.8 by the United States Geological Survey, which placed its epicenter in the area of Lebanon, New Jersey, about 50 miles away from Manhattan. The tremor began at 10:23 a.m., with residents as far south as Philadelphia and as far north as Long Island and Westchester County reporting that they felt violent shaking.
There were no immediate reports of major damage, but the city’s major international airports, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty, were issued a ground stop by the Federal Aviation Administration in the quake’s wake.
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JFK’s ground stop was ended around 11:30 a.m., and the order expired at 12:30 p.m. at Newark Liberty after authorities inspected runways.
The epicenter was almost directly beneath the building that houses Mane Stream, a non-profit group that offers therapeutic services to people with special needs in Oldwick, New Jersey.
“We heard a huge noise, like trucks maybe getting into an accident or something like that,” Trish Hegeman, the non-profit’s executive director, told The Daily Beast. “But there was a big rumbling noise at the same time as the shaking started. It was just a lot of really big shaking. We didn’t have any damage, but we had one picture fall off the wall.”
She added that the quake was “super unusual and a little scary,” but didn’t seem to startle the 13 horses they have on the property.
Paola Bahena, a passenger on a Friday morning flight out of Newark, told The Daily Beast her plane had just pushed back from the gate when the earthquake occurred. The plane was ordered to stop in its tracks, she said, and a pilot announced that the the air traffic control towers had been evacuated as a precaution.
She said the engine was turned off to conserve fuel and they sat on the runway to wait before ultimately being cleared for takeoff 90 minutes after their scheduled departure. Bahena said the typical shaking of an airplane from the engines meant she didn’t feel the quake itself.
The United States Geological Survey said there is a 3 percent chance the region could be struck with an aftershock within the next week that’s more powerful than magnitude 5. It added there’s a 46 percent chance that a magnitude 3 or higher aftershock could come within the week.
Authorities in New York City didn’t appear too concerned, however, with an alert being blasted out to New Yorkers’ phones telling them to carry on with their Friday as usual. Mayor Eric Adams pushed the same in a news conference, conceding to reporters that he didn’t even feel the quake himself at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote to X that she “was assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred,” adding that officials will provide updates throughout the day.
The Port Authority Transit Corporation, which operates transit between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, suspended service immediately after the quake but said trains were running normally by 11:45 a.m.
“Crews will inspect the integrity of the line out of an abundance of caution,” it wrote in an update on X. “Once inspection is complete, service will resume. No timeframe. Updates to follow.”
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s subway, buses, and some ferries in the city, said there was no impact on its service. It said it was still sending teams to investigate train lines.
The New York City Fire Department said in a statement that it was “responding to calls and evaluating structural stability,” but that no “major incidents” needed tending to.
The X account for the Empire State Building posted: “I AM FINE,” clarifying in a follow-up tweet that it was “business as usual” for the building on Friday.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy wrote on X that the state had activated its emergency operations center but urged the public not to call 911 unless they were experiencing an emergency. Murphy later added that he’d spoken with President Joe Biden, who offered to provide help to the state if needed.
Murphy, who is at an out-of-state conference, said in a televised interview that reports of structural damage in New Jersey were “de minimis.”
The shaking is sure to bring back memories of a 2011 earthquake that rattled much of the East Coast, impacting tens of millions between Georgia and Canada. That quake, the strongest since World War II, registered a magnitude of 5.8 at its epicenter in Virginia—sending the White House into an evacuation and cracking the Washington Monument.
In an interview with MSNBC, the mayor of Lebanon called the earthquake “the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced,” adding that it caused his dog to run for cover and pushed objects off his shelves. He said the city did not suffer any significant damage but was certainly rattled by the incident.
