Tremors Top Topic, Despite Lack of Local Damage

Some reported shaking, some said they felt nothing at all. Regardless of reaction tremors stemming from a 5.8-magnitude earthquake became a top topic for many residents Tuesday.

“Obviously, you may have felt the earth move a little bit under your feet today,” Mayor Gloria McCauley acknowledged at the Tuesday Township Committee meeting. “ .  .  .It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded on the east coast and I’m sure by now, if you didn’t feel the earthquake, which I did not in my office, you know there was no damage or injuries reported here in Hillsborough.”

“Our thoughts are with those at the epicenter of the earthquake,” she added.

Reactions to tremors included calls to the Hillsborough Police Department, reporting shaking houses, police said. The department issued a Nixle alert at 2:41 p.m., asking residents to refrain from contacting them for further information.

Residents’ reactions ranged from feeling nothing to precautionary building evacuations.

“I was writing an email at my office in Berkeley Heights when the chair started shaking,” Patch Blogger Harold Levin said in an article comment. “We wandered outdoors, as did everyone else in our building, and we all looked puzzled for about 3 minutes. Very surreal.”

Patch user Barry, a Manville resident, reported feeling his apartment shake, while Maxine Kalfen Hecht left a Facebook commented noting her chair shook in New Brunswick.

Still other residents reported feeling the tremors in various portions of town.

“Rohill development felt it,” Tammy Hannan Hammer said in a Facebook comment.

“Yes, felt it here in Somerset (East Millstone) for about a minute,” Sarah Gabriel Maclean Desmond said via Facebook. “Very weird.”

It wasn’t just humans who felt the shaking, as Mary J. Pudlowski reported.

“I’m in Hillsborough,” she said on Facebook. “Felt the sofa shaking . . .the cat jumped off and was really scared. Weird feeling.”

But other residents, like Mary Wilbur-Turton, didn’t feel a thing.

“Was at the ShopRite on 206,” she said. “No earthquake shocks there.”

Meanwhile at least on Hillsborough resident reported nothing—a good thing.

“I’m in Hillsborough and didn’t feel a thing,” Patch user Wendy S. said. “Had my share when I lived in California.”