For those of us already up and active before 6:00 on Tuesday morning, the shake was startling but forgettable. Our first thought – something happened in our building but no alarms went off. No worries. Soon, though, social media lit up, showing that the big shake rattled Roosevelt Island buildings from Coler to Cornell. That piqued curiosity, if nothing else, but answers have been hard to come by.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Thanks to our friend Rossana Ceruzzi for the tip leading to this story.
Eventually the Facts Came Out
Amid an avalanche of bad reporting across the media spectrum, almost all reporting explosions that never happened, verifiable official reports emerged
The United States Geological Service reported a 1.7-level earthquake in Astoria at 5:45 a.m. today. It occurred at a depth of 5 kilometers or roughly 3 miles as all roadrunners know.
Shockwaves rippled toward Manhattan and slammed into the rock otherwise known as Roosevelt Island. Many of us felt the impact and tried understanding what happened. Few guessed at an earthquake because, well, we don’t have earthquakes.
Or, so we thought.
With reports flying in to 911, FDNY and NYPD quickly responded. Emergency vehicles blocked Main Street in the vicinity of Island House. Others circled the Island. An NYPD boat steadied itself in the East River, a police helicopter hovering overhead.
But strangely, at least for now, no one found any evidence that would explain the earthquake-like shake.
No smoke. No fire. No damages. No injuries…
Guesses ranged from a “building explosion” to something happening within the subway tunnel project. Did the currently out-of-service AVAC blow up?
None of that happened.
The best guess was an underground transformer mishap… But wouldn’t something big enough to shake the whole Island produce some smoke or visible damage? Or realistically, split the Island in two… or three or four?
The Big Shake/RIOC World
We’ll leave the last word, for now, to RIOC, the dysfunctional state agency that today added a sequel to its record of illiteracy. Now, keeping in mind that RIOC never offered any details of the event or any other context, imagine you got out of bed today and read this verbatim:
“FDNY and Con Edison investigation has been completed. They had declare the island to be in a safe condition. All traffic on the island is open to normal capacity.”
What?
“Shameful,” a resident reacted. “Again.”
Eventually, the mass media and even RIOC caught up, reporting the earthquake, but explosions that never happened kept rolling across the news wires.
On naming, neglect, and the quiet work that keeps things standing
About twenty years ago, there was Harbor Police activity near the water, just south of the subway entrance. At the time, no one really thought of it as a pier, though technically there was a small boardwalk there. Of course it wasn’t a pier. A pier implies intention.
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