Earthquake interrupts UN Security Council meeting after hitting US east coast
5 April 2024, 18:44
The quake interrupted a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza.
A 4.8 magnitude earthquake in the US state of New Jersey interrupted a United Nations Security Council meeting in neighbouring New York City on Friday.
As Save the Children representative Janti Soeripto was speaking on the situation in Gaza, a tremor was felt in the building.
“Is that an earthquake?”, Ms Soeripto asked.
After a pause, another member said: “You’re making the ground shake.”
The rare earthquake hit at around 10:20 local time (15:20 GMT) with its epicentre located near Lebanon, New Jersey.
East coast residents in New York reported hearing a booming sound and feeling their buildings shake, while social media users from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Connecticut and other areas of the east coast also reported feeling the quake.
There are no reports of significant damage, the New York Fire Department confirmed.
Brooklyn resident and manager Deanna Pelletteri, 26, told the PA news agency: “It was very scary. I was at work and just felt the floor shake underneath me and things started to rattle.
“It was about 10 seconds long but very unsettling because New York City rarely ever gets earthquakes.”
Another Brooklyn resident, Justin Lawrence Chow, 21, a student and chemistry researcher at Brooklyn College, told PA: “I was on my bed when the earthquake happened. You could hear the house creaking like crazy.
“The floor was moving underneath me. It was unmistakably an earthquake. For a second I thought the house was going to collapse from the earthquake!”
Governor Kathy Hochul of New York posted on X, formerly Twitter: “A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit west of Manhattan and has been felt throughout New York.
“My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day.”
In a video message, she warned residents to be aware of aftershocks and said that New Yorkers had not experienced an earthquake of that magnitude since 2011.
Registering magnitude 5.8, the August 2011 earthquake was the strongest quake to hit the east coast since the Second World War.
