Reactions to news of a slight tremor in Brewster and Southeast were mixed Tuesday, as some folks evacuated buildings and others felt nothing.
The movement stemmed from a 5.8 earthquake that hit Virginia just before 2 p.m. People across the Lower Hudson Valley experienced the quake, and Southeast was no exception.
Over at the on Starr Ridge Road, administrative assistant Carrie Pingitore initially thought the shaking was related to the headache she had been experiencing Tuesday afternoon. Then she looked around.
"I felt the floor, my desk and my feet [shaking]," she said, explaining that she yelled to coworker Deborah Renner. Renner was working in another room and did not feel the tremor as she walked across the office, but noticed her computer monitor shaking.
A manager told the women and the rest of the employees to head outside. They stayed there for 10 to 15 minutes, tuning in to local news reports on the radio and trying to contact family and friends on their cell phones.
Even 45 minutes later, Renner and Pingitore were still having trouble using their cells. Less than two miles away at , Deputy Town Clerk Michele Stancati said the office was quiet.
"We didn't feel a thing," she said.
In the Village of Brewster, three officers with the said they did not notice any movement while they were out on patrol Tuesday afternoon. At 121 Main Street, Director Judy Callahan said despite the fact that the organization is housed in a brick building, staff members felt the shaking.
"It sounded like something rattling," she said, adding that a few seconds later she and others noticed a glass of water shaking on a table.
But the tremor was so brief that everyone just went back to work, Callahan told Patch.
"We weren't that concerned," she said with a laugh.
Facebook users shared their experiences on Southeast-Brewster Patch's page, too.
The quake did not cause any disruptions to public transportation. Metro-North reports that commuter trains and subways are unaffected.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement saying that the "state is initiating comprehensive reviews of critical and sensitive infrastructure including the state’s hydroelectric plants, nuclear power plants, key bridges and tunnels, and other assets."
Cuomo said he is "getting regular reports from agencies all over the state and at this time there are no reports of damage or power outages."
