People across Connecticut are reporting feeling tremors from an earthquake that shook Canada on Wednesday. People from Naugatuck to Danbury to Uncasville reported feeling the floor roll and getting dizzy.
U.S. Geological Survey reports a 5.0 quake north of Ottawa at 1:41 p.m.
Morgan Moschetti, a seismologist with the USGS, said it was not unusual for an earthquake to be felt 300 miles from the epicenter and noted that the latest quake was felt in the U.S. from Chicago to Maine.
Here, the effects were felt in Hartford and Wethersfield, to Middletown, New Haven, Danbury and more.
Employees of Peoples United Bank building in Wethersfield said they could feel the building shaking twice between 1:40 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. and it shook for quite a while.
Employees of the Hartford in Windsor were evacuated and then allowed back in the building.
Darryl Ohrt, who said his title is Prime Minister of Awesome at Humongo, a digital creative agency in Danbury, said he and company employees felt a light, rolling shaking in the floor. It lasted just a few seconds.
Local
Victoria Locke says her building in Hamden shook.
"My blinds were vibrating a bit," she said.
Jessica Norton said she felt it in her office on Silas Deane Highway in Wetherfield.
"It lasted for almost a minute and the entire building was vibrating. It felt like a huge truck was rumbling by," she wrote in an e-mail.
Trish Lamoureux, of Kaman Corporation, felt it on Blue Hills Avenue in Bloomfield.
"Building shook for several seconds," she said.
Marie Howell, of East Windsor, said she felt the ground shake there.
"My hanging plants, both inside and out, were swaying," she said.
Charlene Bloch said she felt it at Yale’s Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration and Repair
“I was sitting at my desk here in New Haven. I was on the phone and felt the building and desk sway for several seconds. Not everyone here felt it, but it was strong enough to make a couple of us feel a bit dizzy afterwards,” she said.
Robert Anderson felt it on the fifth floor of a building at Elm and Orange streets in downtown New Haven.
"Building swayed twice. First time a few inches second one was smaller," he wrote in an e-mail. "I said to my co-workers it felt like an earthquake because it was much more than a truck going by."
Cindy Rice said she felt tremors twice in Uncasville, near Mohegan Sun casino.
“I was sitting on the floor grooming my Old English Sheepdog and she barked because it sounded as if there was someone at the door,” she said in an e-mail.
This is the second time she has experienced something like this. She was living in St. Mary’s, Georgia in 1989, when her husband was stationed at the Kings Bay Naval base and she heard what sounded like a bump at the door. It too was from a far off earthquake, she said.
In Simsbury, the third and fourth floors of 82 Hopmeadow Street shook, Gina Marandino said.
According to USGS, the most severe earthquake in Connecticut history happened on May 16, 1791 when two heavy shocks shook in quick succession.
"Stone walls were shaken down, tops of chimneys were knocked off, and latched doors were thrown open. A fissure several meters long formed in the ground. In a short time, 30 lighter shocks occurred, and more than 100 continued during the night. Reported felt at Boston, Massachusetts, and New York City, New York," according to USGS.
Connecticut felt effects of an earthquake near Quebec on Feb. 5, 1663, according to USGS, and effects from an Ontario, earthquake in November 1935.
Massachusetts shocks in November 1727 and November 1755 were felt strongly by some Connecticut citizenry. Both were intensity VIII at their epicenters, leaving behind collapsed walls, flattened chimneys, and other broken reminders common to most strong earthquakes.
There were also quakes in:
- April 1837
- August 1840
- On June 30, 1858, in New Haven where residents reported noise "like carriages crossing a bridge," USGS reports.
- July 28, 1878
- Nov. 14, 1925
- March 1953
- Nov. 3, 1968
- April 2002, there were reports of tremors in Connecticut from a quake 15 miles southwest of Plattsburgh, New York, according to CNN.
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