LIers report feeling shakes from Canada earthquake

Kenneth Scourby was at his desk at an office in the Huntington Quadrangle in Melville Wednesday afternoon when he thought he might be having a stroke. Both his head and the monitor on his computer screen vibrated.

"I thought it was my blood pressure and then another woman said she thought she was going to pass out," Scourby said. "People here said they thought they felt the building move."

Scourby and his co-workers are sure they felt shaking from a magnitude-5.0 earthquake in Canada that rattled buildings across upstate New York and Vermont. According to postings at the U.S. Geological Survey website, shaking apparently was felt as far south as Long Island.

The site, which allows visitors to report shaking or tremors, had postings from Garden City and Plainview listed, as well as Brooklyn and Manhattan. The responses are listed by ZIP code.

The agency initially said the quake was a magnitude 5.5, but later reduced it to a magnitude 5.0. It occurred at 1:41 p.m., the USGS said, and was centered about 40 miles north of Ottawa in the Ontario-Quebec border region. There were no reports of any serious damage. According to news reports, it was felt as far away as Ohio.

Scourby said he is pretty sure he and his co-workers, about 20 in the office, indeed felt the earthquake. In addition to feeling a vibration, he said his head "felt like it was shaking just a little bit. It felt like a momentary rush."

People from Buffalo to Albany and north to Massena on the St. Lawrence River say pets were startled and plates rattled at about 1:45 p.m.

David French, 53, of Cicero, says he was at his computer inside his home outside Syracuse when he felt his chair shake.

The quake prompted several calls to State Police in Ray Brook in the Adirondacks.

Scourby said he telephoned friends immediately to see if any had felt similar sensations. "They told me I was being abducted by aliens," he said. Then, after seeing a report on television, he called them back. "I told them, 'Ha, ha, there was an earthquake in Canada.' "

With Deborah Morris and AP