New York State assessing infrastructure after earthquake, aftershocks continue

Albany — A 4.8 magnitude earthquake in Lebanon, New Jersey, and subsequent 4.0 aftershock, was felt across the East Coast on Friday.

The earthquake triggered a response across New York State, both from residents who say the shaking startled them, and officials telling residents to exercise caution in the case of aftershocks.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul made an address about an hour after the earthquake struck, saying her administration had been in communication with the White House, along with neighboring States. The Governor also added they were looking at the integrity of key infrastructure throughout the state.

“It’s important we have our structural teams, our engineering teams, surveying our bridges, our roads, any area that could have a fault line that’s not easily detectable,” Governor Hochul said.

Steve Roecker, a senior research scientist and seismologist, says although the epicenter was in New Jersey, a structure’s foundation, even in the Capital Region, can make an impact.

“You may be farther from the earthquake epicenter,” he says. “But, the shaking actually may be many times greater than some place that’s closer to the where the energy center is.”

Meanwhile, that shaking became very real for some Capital Region residents and businesses. Empire Wine shared this video of their store shaking as the earthquake happened.

“All of a sudden we started hearing some bottles clanking and my hand was actually on the shelf, I mean we have a lot of heavy machinery so shaking and noises is pretty normal, but for the whole big shelving unit to be shaking was pretty shocking,” Michael Caputo, Empire Wine Assistant Manager, says. “I was just really thankfull that it wasn’t much worse because boy I wouldn’t want to cleanup after everything fell off the shelves in here.”