Following a Friday morning earthquake in the Northeast, New York City’s emergency management officials quickly checked for damage and found nothing significant. Experts, however, noted that the earthquake was unexpected and served as a teachable moment for disaster preparedness. While earthquakes are not prioritized as highly on the East Coast compared to the West Coast and countries like Japan, the region has earthquake-specific measures in place and adopted building codes to ensure infrastructure is prepared. Despite the relatively low seismic risk on the East Coast compared to California, experts warn that a larger quake is still possible in the future.
The earthquake, with an epicenter near Lebanon, N.J., highlighted the importance of having seismic building standards in place. New York City and other urban areas in the Northeast generally follow the latest building standards, but different jurisdictions have varying codes. The overall hazard of earthquakes on the East Coast is lower than the West Coast but not zero.
Although the earthquake did not cause major harm, experts caution that older masonry and stone buildings in East Coast cities could perform poorly in seismic shaking. Unlike some earthquake-prone areas in California, New York does not require older buildings to be retrofitted to modern standards. Overall, the lack of damage from the recent earthquake should give the public confidence in the safety of their communities.
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