Buffalo Hit With Magnitude 3.8 Earthquake — Its Strongest In 40 Years

BUFFALO, NY — Buffalo was hit with its strongest earthquake in 40 years Monday morning as a magnitude-3.8 rumbler shook upstate.

The quake hit around 6:15 a.m., 1.24 miles east-northeast of West Seneca, New York, with a depth of 1.86 miles, according to the United States Geological Survey.

It was felt as far north as Niagara Falls and as far south as Orchard Park, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, who cited Erie County Emergency Services.

Poloncarz wrote in a tweet at 7:07 a.m. that no damage reports had been received so far in West Seneca.

"It felt like a car hit my house in Buffalo," Poloncarz wrote in another tweet. "I jumped out of bed."

The USGS website reports that this part of western New York State "has had moderately frequent earthquakes at least since the first one was reported in 1840."

The largest in the area, a magnitude-4.9 rumbler, caused moderate damage in 1929 near Attica, according to the USGS.

"Earthquakes too small to cause damage are felt roughly three or four times per decade, although only one was felt during the 1940s and eight were felt during the 1960s," the agency said.