Connecticut reacts to shaking from New Jersey earthquake

People from one end of Connecticut to the other reported feeling the 4.8 magnitude earthquake centered in New Jersey Friday morning.

The quake struck at 10:23 a.m. and was centered in Whitehorse Station, New Jersey, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Viewers almost immediately began calling and messaging NBC Connecticut about the shaking.

"I felt it in Oxford, CT at my home near the airport. It was a boom followed by 5-10 seconds of shaking. I lived in San Francisco for 4 years in the late 90s and experienced a few there, I knew exactly what it was!!", Dawn Bowler Allaire commented on Facebook.

"I’m in East Haven. My whole house shook," Kathleen Flanagan Quinn said.

Zoe Lussi was home in Southbury when the earthquake hit.

"Felt the earthquake here in Southbury, Connecticut. Heard a big boom on one end of my house that moved across the backside of my house. I was confused because I thought something fell on one end of the house, but then was confused when I heard a bang in front of me at the kitchen sink," she said.

The reports of shaking weren't limited to western Connecticut. We heard from people in Mystic, Killingly, and other parts of eastern Connecticut.

"In N. Windham by the airport. House shook enough where the water in my 55 gal aquarium had a bit of lateral movement start, things in the house rattled," Carrol Reuthe said.

In Southington, the Shields family felt the earthquake shake their home.

Nine-year-old Olivia thought her family was shaking her out of bed.

“I felt like my bed shaking, everything moving, but before I felt everything moving, I just felt like someone trying to wake me up but then no one was there, so I got creepy vibes,” said Olivia. “Then my mom was screaming ‘earthquake!’”

It was the first time she’s ever felt an earthquake.

“I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I never experienced one of these before,'” she said. “All that went through my mind was, wow, wow, wow!”

Her mom, Sheree, said she felt their whole house shake. Their neighbors, however, didn’t feel a thing.

“I felt my phone shaking in my hand, which was like, 'woah .. then the couch was shaking, and I look around, our house is covered in mostly windows, and the windows were shaking,” Sheree Shields said. “The house shook.”

Her partner Louis Burke was transported back to college when an earthquake hit Massachusetts.

“I was in the basement getting work done, and then the entire room started shaking. It was pretty scary,” Burke said about this morning’s ‘quake. “Brought me right back to the earthquake in Springfield when I was in college and we all had to run out of the apartment complex because everything was shaking.”

Mary Wild of Naugatuck was in her home office when she felt it.

“I was in the office paying bills with my two kittens and all of a sudden, I was shaking in the chair, and things started falling, boxes and things,” Wild said. “Less than 30 seconds, but enough that you knew it wasn’t a truck driving by.”
She said her four cats were running around looking for a place to hide. I thought this only happened in California!”