Canadian quake rattles Hackensack, Englewood, Woodland ParkWednesday, June 23, 2010
Last updated: Wednesday June 23, 2010, 11:14 PM
BY WILLIAM LAMB AND KIBRET MARKOS
The Record
STAFF WRITERS
A magnitude-5.0 earthquake centered near the Quebec-Ontario border in Canada shook buildings in Hackensack, Englewood and Woodland Park on Wednesday, prompting authorities to briefly evacuate the Bergen County administration building.
“It was a gentle rocking motion,” said Stanley Marcus, who was working with his son, Mitchell, in the third-floor offices of their real estate business on Hackensack’s Main Street when the tremors started just before 2 p.m.
“I would say it lasted for about 20 seconds,” Marcus said. “There was no noise, just a gentle rocking, like your mother putting you to sleep.”
Marcus, like others who felt the earth move in pockets across North Jersey, on Wednesday, said there was no apparent damage to structures or property, and nothing tumbled from walls or shelves. No injuries were immediately reported as a result of the quake, either in New Jersey or closer to its epicenter in Canada.
Police said they received numerous calls from North Jersey residents and workers, most of them in Hackensack and Englewood, reporting the tremors.
The Bergen County administration building in Hackensack, about 350 miles south of the quake’s center and built about a decade ago, was evacuated for about 20 minutes after employees felt the structure shake. Sheri Hensley, a county spokeswoman who was in her fifth-floor office at the time, said the building began “gently swaying,” prompting many employees to head for the exits before the official evacuation call came.
“It was nothing violent,” she said. “Just a very gentle sway.”
Lt. Dwane Razzetti, coordinator for the county’s Office of Emergency Management, said Wednesday afternoon that there were no reports of damage caused by the tremors.
The adjoining courthouse, which was completed in 1912, also was not damaged, most likely because the building’s solid stone structure and thick walls mitigated the effects of the quake, said Ben Feldman, spokesman for the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.
The earthquake, which occurred at 1:41 p.m., was felt in Canada and across a wide swath of the northeastern and midwestern United States, including New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. The U.S. Geological Survey, which initially measured the quake’s magnitude at 5.5, reported that the quake occurred at a depth of about 12 miles. The tremors rattled office buildings in Toronto and Ottawa, forcing authorities to evacuate Canada’s Parliament building.
The quake came just ahead of the weekend summit of G-20 and G-8 world leaders in Toronto and Huntsville, Ontario.
A medical and office building at 1130 McBride Ave. in Woodland Park was evacuated after police received a call around 1:50 p.m. reporting that the building was shaking, said Mayor Pat Lepore. Lepore said the building would be inspected by a structural engineer and the borough’s code enforcement office before employees and patients would be allowed to return.
Lepore said it was not clear how badly the building shook, only that “it shook enough that it got everyone’s attention.”
Back in Hackensack, many store owners and office workers interviewed along Main Street said they had not felt the tremors. Carol Cuff, an office manager at a law office, was one who did.
“It almost felt like a dizzy spell,” she said, describing the sensation of feeling the floor shake as she sat at her second-floor workstation. “I just doubted myself that I felt it. It lasted five, maybe 10 seconds.”
Cuff said she asked her colleagues if they had felt an earthquake. None had. Later, she said, she went home and read online that tremors had been reported in parts of North Jersey.
“I called my colleagues and told them, ‘See, I am not losing my mind,’ ” she said.
Staff Writers Joseph Ax and Jennifer H. Cunningham contributed to this article, which includes material from The Associated Press.
E-mail: markos@northjersey.com and lamb@northjersey.com
