Virginia Earthquake felt in New Jersey

Eric Lapointe, a manager at Rockin Joe's cafe in Cranford didn't understand why his customers were looking around in awe and talking about the ground shaking.

It wasn't until people started murmuring about an earthquake that he started to grasp what may have just happened, as a 5.8 magnitude quake in central Virginia was felt in New Jersey Tuesday afternoon.

"To be honest, none of the employees felt anything, maybe because we were moving around. All the customers that were sitting down felt it," Lapointe said.

Business owners and customers at other stores began walking outside and asking each other if they felt the ground shaking as well.

The U.S. Geological survey reported that at 1:51 p.m., a 5.9 magnitude quake hit Virginia. The epicenter was 44 miles northwest of Richmond, Va. Tremors were felt as far north as Boston, and as far south as North Carolina, according to reports.

"I heard something, it was kind of a noise and then the big glass window started to move and the chairs moves," said Nina Sheridan, owner of Lola Salon on Eastman Street in Cranford. "It was like we were sitting on Jell-O."

Helen Lee, who works at Diamond Cleaners in Cranford, said the conveyor belt that carries clothing to the front counter was shaking.

"I didn't know why," she said, adding that she looked outside, wondering of perhaps a large truck had just passed the building.

Joanne Daly, who works at the Buttery Bake Shoppe on Eastman Street, said she was at her home in Roselle Park when the earthquake resonated through the region.

"The dome light over the kitchen table was shaking," Daly said.

Others, such as busy store employees and those traveling in cars, say they didn't feel anything, and they were unaware that there was an earthquake until they learned about it on the news or heard others talking about it.

At Starbucks in Westfield, busy baristas say they didn't feel the tremor at all. Customers, however, knew something wasn't quite right.

"It felt unstable. I was puzzled but not scared because I've had this experience a while ago, " said Yelena Foskarino, who is from the Ukraine and has been through an eathquake before. "I was glad I didn't miss it, to be honest with you."

For a moment, Foskarino said she thought someone may have been kicking the bench on which she was sitting against a wall in Starbucks.

Cranford Lt. James Wonziak said the police department received numerous calls from residents following the tremor, but no reports of damage or injury. Several alarm activations poured into police headquarters from homes that have motion sensors on their alarm systems.

Jason Lee, the manager at NJ Wine Seller.com in Cranford said he felt the earthquake and saw signs in the store shaking. He has friends that were on the beach in Sandy Hook when the quake began. They told him the sand started shaking beneath them. A few people around them on the beach started packing up and leaving but they didn't begin to worry until they reached Route 35 and noticed that police had part of the road closed.

PSE&G released a statement earlier this afternoon, saying that there were "no operational or safety issues as a result of the earthquake," nor were there any power outages reporter at the time of the event.

"The state's largest utility dispatched employees to assess any potential damage to its facilities. These include electric transmission lines and switching stations, as well as critical natural gas facilities such as metering and regulating stations, and gas transmission lines and mains," the statement from PSE&G indicated.

Gov. Chris Christie's office also released a statement following the earthquake earlier today.

"At this time, no injuries or fatalities have been reported and there are no reports of damage to the state’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, dams, reservoirs, power grids, transit systems and nuclear power plants," the governor's office stated. "The governor’s office is in constant communication regarding the status of the situation with State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes and the Office of Emergency Management team who are managing the event from the Regional Operations Intelligence Center. They are receiving regular updates from the US Geological Survey and are in real time contact with the Governor’s Office."

Trains, buses and light rail are all operating and NJ Transit tickets are being cross-honored, according to state officials.

This is not the first time New Jersey has experienced an earthquake. A series of four quakes hit Morris County in February of 2009. The largest was a magnitude 3.0 at its epicenter in Victory Gardens. Then, in December of 2009, a 2.5 magnitude earthquake hit the same area. Two small quakes also hit Somerset County in February of last year, the larger of the two measuring a 1.5 magnitude.

The USGS is asking people who felt the quake the share their experience by going to http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/c0005ild/us/form.en.disabled.html.