Crime & Safety

Residents and Office Workers Felt Minor Earthquake

Police receive numerous calls with concerns but no problems reported anywhere

UPDATE 5:15 p.m. - Residents and office workers in Heights reported they did feel the minor earthquake which hit Virginia Tuesday afternoon.

Local and state officials continue to report throughout the afternoon that there were no damages caused by the earthquake which registered as a 2.2 on the Richter scale in this area according to the U.S. Geological Survey, classifying it as a category IV which has "light shaking" and "no damage."

Lt. Jim Miller of the Hasbrouck Heights Police Department confirmed that numerous calls came in from concerned residents as many felt their bulding sway.  In some cases there was a bit of a panic as some fire alarms were pulled in some buildings. There was no damage reported anywhere in the borough and all was okay, he confirmed.

All was okay at the Hilton Hotel on Terrace Avenue. Representatives at the front desk said there were no evacautions but they did feel a minor shake.

Find out what's happening in Hasbrouck Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Workers in the borough clerk's office said some of the employees in the building reported feeling the shake but there was no evacuation and everything was fine.

Directly across the street at the Farmer's Market some say they didn't feel a thing. Paige Davis, owner of Evil Kitten Accessories, a vendor at the market said she didn't feel anything and only learned about it when a friend text messaged her. News continued to spread throughout the afternoon via text messages and phone calls across the state and through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale was felt in Virginia and the Washington, D.C. area at 1:53 p.m. Tuesday. That quake was a category VII. The epicenter of the Virginia quake was located nine miles south of Mineral, VA.

Find out what's happening in Hasbrouck Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday  Governor Chris Christie's office issued a statement reporting that there were no injuries or fatalities and no reports of damage to the state’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, dams, reservoirs, power grids, transit systems and nuclear power plants.

Trains, buses and light rails are all operating and NJ Transit tickets are being cross-honored, according to the governor's statement.

PSE&G said there were no outages because of the quake, and that it had dispatched workers to check transmission lines, as well as natural gas facilities.

The Port Authority said flights going into and out of JFK and Newark airports were stopped for a brief period this afternoon while the air traffic control towers were evacuated. Both airports reopened for both incoming and outgoing flights by 3 p.m. Tuesday. LaGuardia Airport was not closed at any time, according to officials.

In some nearby areas residents experienced difficulty getting service on their cellphones in the hour after the quake. were overloaded in the borough following the quake.

Numerous phone companies advised customers to text or e-mail and avoid making calls to cut down on call volume and improve cell service. Those companies included T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon.

"Seeing no reports of damage to our wireless network. There was some network congestion in the East after tremors," Verizon spokesman David Samberg posted on Twitter.

Nearby hospitals such as Holy Name in Teaneck remained fully operational and it was not evacuated according to spokeswoman Jacqueline Kates.

"It's amazing that we felt it when it was so far away," Kates said. "It was quick and everybody was back to normal."

The Bergen County courthouse in Hackensack was evacuated, according to NorthJersey.com, which posted video of the quake from the Associated Press. 

The USGS is asking those who felt the earthquake to fill out an online survey to assist their information gathering.

Tracy Montgomery also contributed to this report.


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