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A magnitude 4.8 earthquake was felt across New York City, surrounding suburbs and New Jersey. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a tweet: “My team is assessing the impacts and any damage that may have occurred and we will update the public throughout the day.”
According to the New York Fire Department, there are initially no reports of damage to the buildings. The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the town of Lebanon in New Jersey.
“We haven’t felt such a strong earthquake since 2011,” the governor said, underlining that she had deployed teams of engineers to assess the state of bridges and infrastructure, including the New York City subway. «We are not used to having earthquakes in this area. We have no indications of damage to buildings or dangerous situations,” added Hochul.
“No one’s life is in danger”
“We are taking this extremely seriously, and that’s because there’s always the possibility of aftershocks,” the New York state governor added. However, the governor assured that there are no “life-threatening situations” following the earthquake, specifying that she has asked emergency teams across the state to be “on alert” in case dangerous situations are reported. In particular, she added, “potentially vulnerable infrastructure” across the state is being monitored.
Brief interruption of the UN meeting on Gaza
The earthquake caused a brief interruption of the Security Council meeting where the humanitarian situation in Gaza was being discussed. CNN reports that a video shows how the interior of the UN shook while the president of Save the Children USA, Janti Soeripito, was speaking to the members of the Council who looked around, sensing the seismic shock.