A 3.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Buffalo at 6:15 a.m. today, rattling houses and waking up Western New Yorkers. “It felt like a car hit my house in Buffalo,” tweeted Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. “I jumped out of bed.”
Poloncarz said there had been no reports of damage. The quake was centered about 4 miles east of Buffalo, and happened about 2 miles underground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was felt from Niagara Falls to Orchard Park, and in southern Ontario.
“Omg, I’m shaking in Cheektowaga!!!,” one woman wrote. Western New Yorkers wrote on social media that they at first thought the earthquake was a truck hitting their house, a water tank exploding, or a sonic boom. And, this being Buffalo, many immediately made a connection to snow.
“Thought it was snow falling from the roof,” one Twitter user wrote. “You know you are from Buffalo when an earthquake wakes you up and your first thought is ‘was that a snow plow?,’” tweeted Kevin O’Neill.
The USGS said the region gets “moderately frequent earthquakes,” most weak enough that they don’t cause damage. A 3.8-magnitude earthquake is relatively weak and is not expected to cause much damage, Earthquakes Canada said. (SOURCE)
