New Yorkers told to stay away from high-rise buildings after earthquake

New Yorkers were told to stay away from high-rise buildings after a rare earthquake struck Manhattan on Friday morning.

The 4.8-magnitude tremor shook the city at 10:23am, with rumbling felt as far along the east coast as Boston and Baltimore.

The epicentre of the quake was near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, about 45 miles west of New York City, and around 42 million people are expected to have felt the ground move.

Joe Biden, the US president, spoke with Phil Murphy, the New Jersey governor, shortly after the quake hit and the White House said it will provide assistance if needed.

A beeping text alert went out to some New Yorkers nearly 40 minutes after the earthquake struck.

While no major damage was reported, New York governor Kathy Hochul warned of the possibility of aftershocks and urged residents to take the threat “seriously”.

“This is one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century,” she said, adding that people should “stay away from buildings, especially our high rises” if there are further tremors.

As many as a dozen aftershocks were reported in following hours in the region, including a 4.0-magnitude quake early in New York City on Friday evening, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The Empire State Building social media team had posted earlier in the day on X: “I AM FINE.” Later it added “NOT AGAIN” followed by “I AM STILL FINE”.

New York is home to hundreds of skyscrapers measuring over 150m tall.

Later, in a news conference, Eric Adams, the New York City mayor, urged residents to “go about their normal day”.

He said no major injuries or damage had been reported but urged city residents to take cover if they feel any further shaking.

Mr Adams also said that everyone in the city had felt the earthquake, before going on to say he hadn’t noticed anything.

“All of us felt, in some way or another, the earthquake hit our city at around 10:23am,” he told reporters.

Asked where he was when the quake struck, Mr Adams said: “I was at [a] youth gun summit and I didn’t feel it, my security detail brought it to my attention.”

Others didn’t notice the tremors amid the chaos of Manhattan traffic, with some people initially thinking claims it had happened were a practical joke.

Jessica Anne, 30, who works in finance, was buying an iced coffee near Madison Square Park when the tremor struck.

“I was getting loads of messages about the earthquake but I felt nothing,” she said.

“I asked my friend if claiming there’d been a natural disaster was a new TikTok trend because I didn’t believe anyone.”

But many people did report seeing their walls shake and books fall off the shelves.

Miranda Levy, a writer in Queens, said the quake lasted about 30 seconds. “I was upstairs in the attic bedroom when the noise happened again,” she added.

“But this was more than just a faint rattle. It started getting louder and louder, and the walls and floor started to shake. At first I thought I was imagining it, but it soon became clear I wasn’t.”

Meanwhile, Emma Powell, 32, was in her office in lower Manhattan when her desk started to shake.

“We have a furious typer on the team so initially I thought it might be that,” she said, adding: “but it kept going and everyone started looking around and asking if it was an earthquake and if we should get under a desk.”

Celebrities across New York also posted on social media about feeling the ground rumbling.

Jessica Chastain, the actress and producer, wrote.“Did we just have an earthquake?! NYC,” while Lily Allen said: “Was that an earthquake in Brooklyn? That was insane.”

Friday’s earthquake was the largest felt in the city since the 2011 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Virginia that prompted evacuations of City Hall and other buildings and caused damage in Washington.

Most earthquakes in the north east of the US go undetected. A much smaller, 1.7-magnitude earthquake was also felt on Jan 2 in parts of New York.