Buffalo, New York, area is hit with the strongest earthquake in 40 years

“It felt like a car hit my house in Buffalo. I jumped out of bed,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said of Monday’s 3.8-magnitude quake.

A 3.8-magnitude earthquake struck Monday morning near Buffalo, New York, the strongest recorded in the area in 40 years.

The quake hit 1.24 miles east-northeast of West Seneca, New York, with a depth of 1.86 miles, around 6:15 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said no damage had been reported so far in West Seneca, a suburb of Buffalo near the U.S.-Canada border.

He said he had spoken with the deputy commissioner of the Erie County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Gregory J. Butcher, who said a “confirmed quake was felt as far north as Niagara Falls and south to Orchard Park.”

“It felt like a car hit my house in Buffalo. I jumped out of bed,” Poloncarz said.

Yaareb Altaweel, a seismologist at the National Earthquake Information Center, said Northeast earthquakes “happen all the time” and quakes can strike anywhere at any time.

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