Some Vineyarders are reporting that they felt a bit shaken up by yesterday’s earthquake, though there were no reports of damage on the Island. While its epicenter was in Maine, many New Englanders felt some effects, including Vineyarders, 150 miles away.
Here’s what we heard:
Carla Cooper was working in her upstairs office yesterday in Katama, and was caught off-guard by a tremor of about five seconds. “I felt the whole building tremble, and my whole computer screen trembled, and I sat there and said, ‘Was that an earthquake?’” she recalled on Tuesday
She then looked outside for any other explanation, such as passing cement trucks, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, she said.
No Islander reached by The Times reported harm or damage from the quake, but Cooper was wary on Tuesday of a potential aftershock.: “Now that I know it was an earthquake, it does kind of give me pause. Are there more coming?”
Mary Foster of Vineyard Haven told The Times on Monday that her first thought was also to look around for an explanation. “I did feel the earthquake; my house shook!” she said. “At first I thought it was one of the many big trucks that go past my house … Then I realized [that] the house doesn’t shake when the trucks go by.”
Another Vineyarder, who requested anonymity, told The Times that her quake experience lasted nearly 30 seconds.
“The windows were making a weird noise,” the Islander said. “It was slightly alarming at first, and then I figured it must be a small earthquake.”
For Cooper in Katama, it’s got her thinking about the nature of such a far-reaching event. “I’m just shocked that we could feel something this far away. And it really goes to show you how connected we are, even though we’re out here on an island, that something happening out in Maine can have an effect here,” she said.
For more information on the quake, check the U.S. Geological Survey webpage, on.doi.gov/42zkh6E.
