Ridgewood Reacts to Earthquake Felt in Bergen County

Walking around Tuesday afternoon, there was one question being asked: "Did you feel it?" People were discussing an earthquake that shook the ground from Virginia all the way up the East Coast.

A minor earthquake was felt in Bergen County Tuesday shortly before 2 p.m. The quake measured 2.2 on the Richter Scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS classified the quake in the New York metro area as a category IV which has "light shaking" and "no damage."

A 5.8 earthquake struck in Virginia on Tuesday afternoon shortly before 2 p.m., and registered at 2.2 on the Richter Scale in Bergen County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Like surrounding municipalities, Ridgewood police said they've received reports of some damage caused by the earthquake/tremor.

Some in Ridgewood said it they hadn't felt a thing and were surprised to hear there was an earthquake. Others, however said 1:53 p.m. was undeniably an unusual minute.

Stuart Reiser, of Wayne, was in his Hackensack office building at about 2:00 p.m. when there was a great shake. “The building swayed a foot; It was noticeably moving," he said while buying a coffee in Ridgewood an hour later.

"At first I thought something fell on the building. I looked outside my window and on the street people were running, panicked. It was pretty scary,” he said.

Of course, “if it didn’t stop, it would be scarier,” he added. Like many in the area, Reiser's building on Hackensack Avenue was evacuated as a precaution.

Zach Lear was in Paramus at an office building when he realized something was amiss.

“I was looking at my legs and thinking, ‘Why am I shaking?’” he said. “It lasted for what felt about 15-20 seconds before we evacuated [the building] and then went back inside."

"It was really interesting," he said. "People were upset [in the building] and some were nauseous. But we got news reports [alerting them of the quake], talked it over and people seemed to be okay. But man, it was really interesting. I've never felt anything like that before.”

Ridgewood resident John Egan reported a decidedly less jarring experience.

"I was on the bed with the dog and usually the dog is very nervous about thunder," said Egan. "He was laying next to me and he was asleep when the couch shook. It lasted a few seconds and that was it," he said.

"When I came downtown and turned the radio on, they were talking about the earthquake – I didn't even know there was one," he said.

"It's very unusual here on the east coast."

The USGS is asking those who felt the earthquake to fill out an online survey to assist their information gathering.