50.0°,
Fog/Mist "Tremble and Quake"
Wednesday brought a 5.9 earthquake that shook the east coast from the Carolinas to Canada. The Jewish Star readership chimed in on their experiences:
I live in the west end of Richmond. This is about 30 miles east of the epicenter. My home office is on the second floor; the walls and windows began to vibrate and rumble. My first thought was to get outside in the street. I grabbed both cell and land line phones. It was definitely a life changing experience. I did not want to be in a pile of rubble.
My main concern was my wife. She works in an office building in Richmond. Both land and cell lines were dead. Finally she called; they had evacuated her building. I went over to my elderly Jewish neighbors and they were ok. They were originally from Brooklyn, and we were from Yonkers and New Jersey.
G-d was watching out for us.
Harold Goldberg
Richmond, Virginia
I absolutely felt the earthquake, as did my baby.
I thought I was hallucinating. Hashem is trying to tell us that the world is falling apart. So He has to make it clear with a sign. And now we need to come together and open our hearts. We have to learn and look and be ready. I’m my father’s Chasid.
Neshama Carlebach
Manhattan
I noticed people pouring onto the street from the building next to ours on Third Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan. Apparently the IT guys heard 9.5 and they flipped out. The guy announcing the emergency had no idea what 5.9 was versus 9.5, but to anyone with some knowledge especially a guy from San Francisco it was the scariest thing he could imagine. Leading our other employees, the San Franciscan was down 17 flights in three minutes. B’H everyone is OK. Just reminds us of the power that Hashem invested into the natural world He designed.
David Bibi
Sephardic Congregation of Long Beach
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We felt the earthquake in The Jewish Channel’s Manhattan headquarters. Thankfully, our extra investments in quality equipment meant none was damaged.
Steven I. Weiss
I was in my office at 200 Park Ave, above Grand Central on the 24th floor. The floor shook for about one minute, and having been across the street from WTC on 9/11 and at 140 Broadway during the first WTC bombing - I hit the stairs with my colleagues with a fear that something occurred on the tracks in Grand Central.
William (Zev) Skolnick
My chair was shaking. The building was shaking. The light fixtures were swaying in the pressroom. By the time I started to panic it was over. Wow. Very scary.
Rhonda Glickman
V.P. Sales, Herald Community Newspapers, Garden City
I was at my computer, viewing e-mails. This is not my first quake. I come from San Francisco, California. I have felt stronger quakes.
Sheldon Levin
I didn’t feel a thing.
Rabbi Abraham Twerski
New Jersey
I happened to be sitting on a rock by the water of Far Rockaway Beach when I felt the rock start to shake. I thought maybe my coffee was just too strong this morning and I was reacting to the caffeine. Elul is approaching and Hashem is giving us an early warning. Time for tshuva.
Reva Weingot
Far Rockaway
I was in my office in Cedarhurst when I felt the rumble. At first I thought it was because a plane was passing by and you sometimes feel that a tiny bit.
Mark Rubin
Cedarhurst
I was at my desk at South Baldwin Jewish Center where I am office manager. I could not believe that the floor was vibrating and thought I was having a dizzy spell or some type of inner ear imbalance. The temple was empty and I walked through the building to see if I should remove the Sifre Torah from the arks.
Murray Altman
Baldwin
I was sitting in my office. I thought someone next door was kicking the wall. If people don’t see HaShem’s hand in what is happening in the physical, financial and international political world, then they are truly blind.
Shmuel Idler
I was sitting on a chair at my office, which normally sits on the floor, but for 30 seconds it wasn’t. Was someone doing construction work on the block? Was the building old and finally giving out? Earthquake? Can’t be. This is NY.
Hannah Miller
I was underground on the A train in a tunnel under the East River and I did not feel a thing! In fact when my office called to tell me of an earthquake, I thought they were making a joking reference to the condition of my office.
Herb Marek
Woodmere
I was in the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights; the entire building was shaking, the lights were moving. There is construction outside on the street, and some were saying that it was coming from there. A group of South American tourists, who were visiting with their Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, were shrieking.
Dovid Zakliko
As we finished mincha in the offices of the World Jewish Congress on the 17th floor, I looked at Chaim Reiss (of Far Rockaway) and we felt the room shaking. The Hatzola members who daven with us listened to their radios. Some stuck their hands in their pockets and give an extra bit to tzedaka.
Eliezer Cohen
It was 1:54 p.m., because it was around the time I leave my cubicle for our building’s mincha minyan. I felt my chair rocking slightly, and my first thought was that my coffee was spiked. I remember as a teenager in Washington Heights waking up to a stronger tremor which was shaking my bed a bit. Time for us all to wake up and perform some cheshbonos hanefesh!
Michael Poppers
I was working in Port Jefferson. One person thought they had vertigo until she realized it was an earthquake.
Lewis Stein
Lawrence
It felt like home. Growing up in LA we had earthquakes all the time. Seems like LA conditions followed me to the Big Apple.
Rivka Lock
I was in the Holland Tunnel! I could have been trapped, suffocated crushed, you name it! But nothing! How come everyone got to feel it but not me? It’s not fair! I want my tremor!
Ari Wartelsky
I was davening mincha in Lower Manhattan at the time, and didn’t feel a thing.
Jeffrey Grunstein
Didn’t feel it here in Teaneck but maybe that’s because I have 4 boys to deal with!
Shira Weiss
I was in Cedarhurst at camp. I didn’t feel a thing!
Judd Eisenberg
We have some tile work being done in the bathroom, so I thought, wow, this tile guy is hammering so hard that it’s shaking the house. We ran outside and heard several house alarms going off from what must have been vibration, but we still thought our house was the only one shaking because earthquakes don’t happen in New York! But one just did! What bracha do we say now?
van Amerongen family
Woodmere
Seeing everyone here in Mineola outside their buildings, gave me the feeling what it’ll look like when Moshiach arrives, everyone outside sharing the good news.
Rabbi Anchelle Perl
Mineola
Our daughter was having a tutoring lesson in the dining room when she noticed the antique mirror in the center foyer was swaying and then she jumped! The water in the glass was swaying; the crystal chandelier was swaying.
Penny and Harold Waldman
I was in the middle of mincha with a minyan that meets near my office in Brooklyn. At first I thought it was just me. But it wasn’t, others felt it. I thought maybe Hashem was getting ready to take us to Yerushalayim.
Steven R. Katz
Forest Hills
I was sitting in my office in suburban New Jersey when it hit. The shaking made me think I was sick. We got everyone out of the office. The funny thing is the smokers outside didn’t feel a thing. Now I can scratch an earthquake off my bucket list.
Stephen M. Flatow
Fairfield, NJ
The times are a changing and after all the deconstruction that humans have raged on Mother Nature -- these events/occurrences, I am afraid will be happening more often than not.
Adrienne Sioux
Koopersmith
Chicago
