Newsday
Earthquake Article
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5.1 Quake Shakes Upstate N.Y.
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The Associated Press
April 20, 2002, 8:44 AM EDT
An earthquake woke up residents of upstate
New York early Saturday, with people reporting their houses shaking in
neighboring states.
State police reported that route 9N
collapsed partially in the town of AuSable, 12 miles south of Plattsburgh.
A three-foot strip of the driving section and the shoulders on each side
caved in, but traffic was continuing, Sgt. Larry Cragle said.
In the neighboring hamlet of Harkness, a
minor county road was also collapsing, police said.
William Ott, a seismologist at Weston
Observatory at Boston College, said the quake measured 5.1 on the Richter
scale. The epicenter was about 15 miles southwest of Plattsburgh, N.Y., he
said. He said the quake was recorded at 6:50 a.m.
Ott called Saturday's earthquake
"moderate." A typical 5.1 earthquake would cause cracked
plaster, broken windows and minor structural damage around the epicenter,
he said.
Paul Delaney, a staff member at the New
York State Emergency Management Office in Albany, N.Y., said his office
had also confirmed an earthquake.
"I was getting out of the shower and
the mirror was shaking. The whole house was shaking," said Darlene
Conklin, a resident of Hopewell Junction in upstate New York. "My
husband was watching TV, and he felt the couch shaking. You could see the
doors shaking, the walls trembling."
Residents of upstate Lake Placid, N.Y., as
well as Collinsville, Conn., a village near Hartford, Conn., also reported
being awakened by their houses shaking.
By several accounts, the shaking lasted
about 30 seconds.
Amanda Slattery, of Yorktown Heights in
Westchester County, said she was in bed when the temblor struck.
"Nothing fell off the shelves, but we
have a wood frame house and I could hear the frame of the house shaking.
... I lay there long enough to realize it was an earthquake. I got up and
I was relieved when it stop."
Richard Brady, a resident of Stormville, in
Dutchess County, said he and his wife were awakened by the tremors.
"We were awakened by the rattling of
the teapots in the collection we have on a shelf. We got up and waited for
it to stop," he said. "The dog was kind of restless, walking
around the house trying to figure out what was going on."
Copyright (c) 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-quake0421,0,2654804.story
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