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Community Corner

No Damage, Injuries, or Waves Reported from Mid-Morning Shake on South Fork

While there was no fallout from the eathquake, a handful of residents felt something that made them say, "What was that?"

Some East Enders felt the earthquake that occured 80 miles off of the coast of Southampton this morning, but most didn't seem to pay it much mind. The , a minor earthquake, caused no damage in the East Hampton Town area and there were no reported injuries. There wasn't even much of a change in the ocean.

Superintendent Scott King said the earthquake didn't seem to cause any problems. "No damage. Town Hall is still standing. Everything is good," he said on Tuesday afternoon. He didn't even feel it. 

Several surfers from Montauk to Wainscott even reported no signs of increased waves in the ocean on the fairly calm day. "It was a non-event on the South Fork," said John Lycke, a Montauk surfer, who happened to be near in Montauk around the time of the earthquake. 

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Still, some residents and workers were left wondering, "What was that?" 

Jeanie Strong said that she was in her home on Cosdrew Lane with her two young children when her house started to shake. "The dishes in the sink were rattling and my two year old son became very scared and started screaming and crying. It was over very quickly maybe 5 seconds or so and that was it," she said.

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She called her mother Ann Osterberg, who had felt it as well. "I felt a rumbling," Osterberg said from her house on Bow Oarsman Road. "It was really weird. The dog started barking. I thought it was the furnace, when I saw it wasn't, I thought it was just a loud truck going by." 

Osterberg said she remembers another small earthquake back in the early 1980s. She recalled having her daughter in the bathtub when she felt the same "rumbling."

According to Captain Mike Tracey of the , only one village resident called 911; a man on Mill House Lane wanted to know if anyone else had reported tremors.

At the in the village, , who is the communications director, said she felt her desk vibrating. 

, too, only received one call about the earthquake, and that caller turned out to be from Sagaponack, so the call was forwarded to Southampton Town police. Officers at the Hampton Bays location reportedly felt the shake, whereas officers in East Hampton hadn't felt a thing at their headquarters.

Nearby, in Bridgehampton, Frances Jeffers, said she knew something was wrong. " I was sitting upstairs on my bed and then the whole house started shaking. It only lasted for a few seconds though."

Students at Bridgehampton High School also felt the small earthquake. One student said, "We were sitting in class and I felt the floor shaking and I thought to myself what was that?" After that, the teachers turned on the television looking for information on what turned out to be an earthquake.

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