NYC Officials Face Criticism for Earthquake Response

Today, aftershocks were felt in parts of New Jersey and New York. The tremors followed an earthquake that hit the Northeast Friday, rattling nerves, but not doing much damage. CBS’s Michael George joins us for more. Michael …?

Major, good evening. Today people in New Jersey and beyond felt an aftershock centered in Gladstone. That’s about 40 miles from here. And seismologists say those aftershocks could happen for days following that magnitude 4.8 earthquake that shook up the region. One of the largest earthquakes to ever hit the Northeast. More than 40 million people rattled by Friday’s earthquake centered in Readington, New Jersey.

It sounded like 10 freight trains going at the same time.

It was felt from the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor as far away as Washington, DC and Maine. A handful of homes were damaged in Newark, but there were no injuries or deaths and no major damage to bridges, tunnels, or buildings. But there are growing questions about the speed of New York City’s response. A phone emergency alert was sent about twenty-five minutes after the quake was over.

20 minutes is very, very fast for a public notification.

In California where quakes are common alerts can happen as quickly as 10 seconds before an earthquake. One New York business took advantage of the situation just hours after the quake, selling T-shirts reading “I survived the New York City Earthquake.”

She created it very, very quickly and we got it printed and just thought it was awesome.

The experts at Columbia University say this was the strongest earthquake to hit the New York City metro area since 1884. Major …

There’s always a T-shirt. Michael George, thank you.