Strongest earthquake in decades startles western New York
The U.S. Geological Survey preliminarily reported a 3.8 earthquake centered east of Buffalo in the suburb of West Seneca at about 6:15 a.m. Seismologist Yaareb Altaweel said it matched the intensity of the strongest earthquake the region has seen in 40 years of available records — a 3.8 quake that was recorded in November 1999.
“It felt like a car hit my house in Buffalo. I jumped out of bed,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted. County emergency services officials confirmed the earthquake was felt in at least a 30-mile radius, including in Niagara Falls, about 20 miles north of Buffalo, he said. City and county crews spent part of the day inspecting bridges and roads in New York, finding no immediate damage, officials said.
Small earthquakes are not unusual in upstate New York but are rarely felt as strongly. The quake offered a reminder, Brown said, that the region is on a significant fault line known as the Clarendon-Linden fault system.