Beacon felt the tremors of the earthquake that shook Whitehouse Station, New Jersey (about 99 miles from Beacon) on the morning of Friday, April 5, at around 10:30am. Areas from New York City to Philadelphia felt the quake, as reported by WTNH News 8. It measured 4.8, and was “a result of oblique reverse and strike-slip faulting at shallow depths in the crust. Although this event did not occur near a plate boundary, such ‘intraplate’ earthquakes can and do occur,” according to USGS.gov.

“I was leaning against the brick Free Palestine building, talking to a friend, when the building rumbled a little bit,” recalled this blogger, Katie Hellmuth. “It had been windy, and I thought it strange that a brick building would shake in the wind. Then I wondered if the building had a garage in it, where a truck might have pulled in to make a delivery. Which is odd because I know that there is no garage inside.”

Another Beacon citizen also mis-identified the occasion, and wrote in to ALBB: “At first I thought I was having a stroke! Then wondered if somehow my house had been damaged in the storms and was about to collapse…Then I thought it must be crazy military planes…Wow…I felt it roll.”

Farmer Carrie and her brother Tom of Eggbert’s Free Range Farm were driving around the Town of Newburgh making deliveries in their refrigerated van, when they felt the tremors on the road: “I thought it was pothole hell roads. Until I heard the news and received 2 emergency alerts on my watch that there are aftershocks coming that will be felt throughout our area.”

In the grocery store, another Beacon citizen told ALBB that the walls of their house shook so much, they were convinced it was going to collapse.

New Yorker’s aren’t used to earthquakes. Creators of earthquake humor on Instagram were plenty. Hopefully you caught some before they disappeared from people’s Stories. Please share your experience in the Comments below!