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BULLETIN: We’ve Had an Earthquake

Posted in Blogfinger News, Neptune Township News, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on August 23, 2011| 6 Comments »

By Charles Layton and Mary Walton

Ocean Grove experienced tremors from an earthquake on Tuesday.

The quake was centered in southern Virginia, but many people in our town felt their houses shake. Some went out onto the sidewalks and streets to see what was happening.

The tremors, felt all along the East Coast, began at approximately 2 p.m. and lasted only a minute or two.

Blogfinger’s Yvette Blackman reported that people spilled out of Ocean Grove’s Main Avenue hotels and out of the Catholic home across from the Majestic.

Leanne Hoffman, director of engineering and planning at Neptune Township, said everyone at city hall felt it. She said the tremors came in two waves. “We felt the building move,” she said, “and the pendant lights from the ceiling were swaying. And then maybe about five minutes after, it happened again. No damage, but it was a little unprecedented for us.”

The Neptune Police Department said it had received “no reports of any structural damage as a result of the earthquake.” It asked residents with concerns or with reports of damage to notify the department by calling 911.

Callers into WNYC radio in New York said groceries fell off shelves and cell phone service was lost in certain areas. Thousands of people were evacuated from high-rise buildings in New York after the buildings started to sway. Some businesses in Philadelphia closed early and sent workers home. In Washington, national monuments were closed and the White House and adjacent buildings were evacuated for a short time.

The effects were less dramatic in the Ocean Grove/Neptune area.

Janet Mazur-Cavano said she was in the bathroom of her Abbott Avenue home blow-drying her hair, getting ready for her 2 p.m. work shift, when the walls began to shake. She attributed the motion to over zealous workers in the attic renovating a room, and she worried that the ceiling was about to collapse.  She was about to confront the workers and ask, “What are you guys doing?” But they were on their way out to the street. Then her daughter Cat (who is a Blogfinger intern) called from Fusion, the family’s jewelry store on Main Avenue. Said Janet, “She thought she had vertigo. The walls were going all wavy.”
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Paula Sarro of New York City was dining with a friend in Sea Grass when she felt the motion. “It was like being in a building in New York when the subway is running under it,” she said. The waiter said he knew what the problem was. “He said the floor was uneven.”
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In the Ocean Grove Flower Shop, Cathy Rechlin was at work when the quake took place. Everything was normal. Suddenly Steve Mandeville, owner of the Comfort Zone next door, came rushing over. “Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?” Cathy asked.

A cyclist who gave his name as Paul pulled up in front of the Post Office. He said he was at home in Asbury Park when “everything started shaking. The shelves started shaking.” As a teenager he had been through many earthquakes in Guam, where his stepfather was in the military. Today’s event left him unsettled. “Something’s going on. Something doesn’t feel right. Today is a perfect day. Maybe it’s a sign God is trying to tell us something.”

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was approximately 40 miles northwest of Richmond and that it registered 5.8 on the Richter scale.

EARTHQUAKE MUSIC by Carole King:

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