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Earthquake Felt In New York And Surrounding Areas; NY Gov. Warns Of Possible Aftershocks To Earthquake; FDNY: Evaluating Buildings For Structural Stability; NY Gov. Hochul Says Her Team Assessing Any Impacts; White House: Biden Spoke With NJ Governor About Earthquake; Earthquake Felt In Philadelphia, Officials Assessing Impact; FAA: Earthquake Effect On Air Travel "Rapidly Evolving Situation". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: New York felt the earth move under its feet. Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash in Washington and we begin the hour with breaking news. An earthquake jolt New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia with tremors even felt right here in Washington D.C. That 4.8 magnitude quake shook the region at 10:23 am.

It said people scrambling from apartment, buildings and storefronts confused, but quite calm. As you can see and some pictures we have here. The NYPD says there are no major impacts at this time. No major injuries that we are aware of. We do expect New York City Mayor Eric Adams to hold a press briefing at any moment.

Minutes ago, the governor of New York said JFK and Newark airports are on a full ground stop, but Amtrak is on a full schedule. The worry that the aftershocks may still rattle the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): They're taking this extremely seriously and here's why. There is always the possibility of aftershocks. This is one of the largest earthquakes on these coasts occur in the last century.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The Empire State Building posted on social media, in all caps. I AM FINE. Let's get straight to CNN's Polo Sandoval in New York. Polo, I assumed you felt that they're in New York. Tell us what the sense is and what the feeling is out there in Manhattan right now.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am fine. Basically, the text message I sent to my family in Texas. Certainly, there was concern. But as you hear from New York City officials in the last few minutes that there is no life-threatening situation right there. That has that they've been reported no signs of any damage, no sign of any injuries.

That being said, officials are certainly assessing the infrastructure things like bridges and tunnels to make sure that those are safe because the impact of this morning's event is certainly what's now becoming the bigger story. They're certainly the impact on air travel, nearly 9000 people according to USGS likely felt as we described as strong shaking. But nearly 23 million people likely felt what's been described by officials as light shaking.

So that gives you a sense of just the impact here. Here at street level, I can tell you that it is kind of business as usual. Speaking to folks New Yorker, speaking to tourists a bit, some mixed reaction. Some people felt it, others didn't like myself. Also spoke to a family visiting from Belgium. They were in one of the tallest outdoor observation decks in the world here in New York City.

They said that that sort of wobbling, thought it was actually the children that were jumping up and down. Then they received the report on their phone, confirming that in fact it was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake. So certainly, I wouldn't really call it concern, but certainly something that people are talking about here in New York City, as we wait to hear more from officials later today. Dana?

BASH: OK, Polo. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Now, I want to bring in a New Jersey resident who felt the quick. You see him there. His name is Chris Christie and he's joining us from Mendham, New Jersey, about 17 miles from the epicenter as the crow flies up. Governor, thank you so much for being here. What was it like? What did you feel?

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY: I was sitting right here, Dana, working at my desk in my home office. And what it really felt like was like a small explosion. I felt like -- I thought maybe either our home boiler blew, or our generator blew. I went from our -- upstairs where my offices. The house was shaking, seriously shaking.

And I ran downstairs where my wife was to try to see what was going on. She was on her way up to see if I knew what was going on. And it probably was shaking pretty hard for -- I'd say 15 to 20 seconds. And then it started to diminish a bit and then it stopped.

BASH: You know, we had something that was a little bit more of an impact -- a higher impact here in D.C. in 2011. It was 5.8 magnitude, and you could absolutely feel it here. Obviously one of the big reasons we are talking about this, and it is such a big deal is because you're not in California. You're not in anywhere else sort of out west. You're in New Jersey. And you have certainly dealt with your share of natural disasters of -- reminders from Mother Nature who is in charge, but this is not typical for the East Coast.

[12:05:00]

CHRISTIE: No. No, I mean, I remember it happening one other time when I was governor. And we were, Dana, -- it was during the summer, we were at the Jersey Shore. And it was up a much shorter duration than this and smaller. So, I felt like something was shaking. I didn't know whether it was the wind or something else that was shaking, you know, it was kind of an old house that we had down there at the time.

This was really violent shaking. And you could hear your house. The windows rattling, the doors rattling, you know, I could feel as I was going down the stairs, the stairs moving. So, this was significantly different than what I experienced. That was probably, I think, around 2013 or '14 or so. And that was nothing compared to what I felt earlier today.

BASH: I mean, your description that it sounded like, and it felt like a bomb going off. I was just even talking to some colleagues here who was on the phone. They were on the phone with their family in New Jersey saying just that, that they -- I honestly thought that something was happening externally that -- maybe that they weren't -- I mean, certainly don't want to make light of this but that they were under attack. It was just such a foreign feeling.

And it's, again, not something that people in New Jersey, in New York and elsewhere on the East Coast are used to. Can you just kind of give a sense to people -- you sort of said, you're just a resident from New Jersey. You're obviously a two-term governor of New Jersey. What it is that officials should be looking for now? Because I will just say here in D.C., everybody thought it was fine. And then the National Cathedral had damaged, the Washington Monument had damage. What's the protocol now?

CHRISTIE: Well, look, I understand that Governor Murphy's already activated the emergency operations center, what we call it the rock down here in New Jersey. It's in West Trenton, where all of our emergency first responding leadership gathers. I'm sure the governor will probably be there. What they're going to want to do is a few things.

First, you're going to want to see if there were any injuries and take care of anybody who might have been injured. I haven't heard of anything like that yet. But that's priority number one is what's happened to human life.

Secondly then, I would be looking at all of the major large structures in the state. We have a fairly decent skyline in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Goldman Sachs tower being the largest one. I would be sending out as governor, the folks that we have in the Department of Community Affairs, which will have structural engineers to go out and begin working on some of the bigger structures in the state to make sure that they're stable.

And then I think you're going to have to work county by county with the -- with each of the county folks who are oversee building inspections and all the rest in their individual counties to let them know. I'm especially near where I am. Like you said, I'm about 15 to 17 miles away from the epicenter.

I think you start there in western -- northwestern New Jersey. And then work your way in concentric circles out as governor to try to check on the structural safety of homes. You know, we have a number of different types of -- you know, temporary homes here in New Jersey that are -- you know, and by temporary, I mean, at the Jersey Shore. As you know, smaller homes that don't have foundations and all the rest.

So, I think that's the way you work it out. Start with human life, the very large structures, which could create other problems if they were unstable, both for the people who are working in them and for those in the surrounding neighborhoods. And then ultimately, down to individual homes, which can be dealt with at the county level.

BASH: Yeah. And I know this -- look, this didn't even happen two hours ago at this point. You talked about the way it sounded in the way it felt. Have you been able to look around? Do you have any sense of any damage to your house that could be an example of maybe the delayed effects of people really realizing what the impact was?

CHRISTIE: Well, I went outside, and I took a look around and I didn't see anything. But you know, Dana, as an engineer, I'm a really good lawyer. So, I don't know if I really noticed anything unless it was getting ready to fall off the house. But there wasn't anything that was obvious to me.

But you know, I think that everybody's going to have to like kind of wait, let it settle in a little bit and then take a closer look during the day like today. But I certainly didn't see anything initially from my look around on the throne any problems. And we didn't have anything fall off the walls or anything like that. It shook pretty violently. But everything kind of stayed where it was supposed to.

BASH: One of New Jersey's most famous residents, hey governor, if you want to get Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi to Colin, you can give them our number. Let's see what they found.

CHRISTIE: Yeah.

BASH: All right.

CHRISTIE: Dana, I will put this link right to block right now.

[12:10:00]

BASH: OK. All right. In all seriousness, thank goodness it seems as though everybody is OK. Thank you for jumping on and telling us your experience. Governor, appreciate it. And you got to come back and talk politics. This is Inside Politics. Come back soon.

CHRISTIE: I promise you -- I promise you I will, and everybody have a good weekend.

BASH: Thanks Governor. And video coming in from all over New York, showing the moments the quake shook the city and beyond. This is from inside the United Nations Security Council. When the tremors disrupted a debate over the Middle East, Elisa Farah -- excuse me, Elisa Raffa, is at our Weather Center in Atlanta. So, Alyssa, walk us through exactly how large this earthquake was.

ELISA RAFFA, METEOROLOGIST: I mean it's pretty significant when you talk about the shaking. 4.8 magnitude is something that doesn't happen in this region really at all. And I think that's what the big storyline here is. You know, 4.8 magnitude -- you know can give you some moderate shaking, but especially for this area, it's massive. This is not on any active seismic area.

We've been talking about the earthquake in Taiwan earlier in the week. That's where you're sitting in a hotbed, right on top of fault-lines volcanoes, like that's very common. This is not that. So, I think that's just a lot of what -- you know, people are reacting with confusion because 4.8 magnitude is definitely significant enough for that shaking to be felt for miles and miles.

You know, we're thankfully not getting the reports of the damage. But especially in this area, it's just not what they feel. And it was pretty shallow --

BASH: Elisa, I apologize for interrupting. I want to go to Eric Adams, mayor of New York.

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NYC, NY): That hit our city around 10:23 am. We felt the impact of this 4.7 magnitude earthquake. The epicenter was in Lebanon, New Jersey, about 50 miles from New York City. And as you notice is a developing situation where you always concern about aftershocks and after an earthquake.

But New Yorkers should go about their normal day. First responders are working to make sure the city safe. And one thing we do so well in our city is bringing together all of the agencies that are involved and our partners and other entities. Everything from the MTA to the Department of Buildings. The parents who are concerned about their school children. Chancellor Banks would be here to report on that.

But we say over and over again, the safest place for our students we believe will continue to be in school. At this point, we do not have any reports of major impacts to our infrastructure or injuries. But of course, we're still assessing the situation. And we'll continue to update the public. We're in touch with the White House, the governor's office and local elected officials.

And I encourage New Yorkers to check on their loved ones to make sure that they are fine, not only from the infrastructure damage, but this could be a traumatic moment for individuals going through an earthquake. And if you feel an aftershock, dropped to the floor, cover your head and neck and take cover under a solid piece of furniture next to an interior wall or in a doorway.

So, I want to thank the emergency staff and first responders for the work to keep New Yorkers safe. Earthquakes don't happen every day in New York. So, this can be extremely dramatic. The number of texts calls and inquiries of their people sent out to not only our administration, but to family members, checking on them. We know how this can impact you.

But we're ready for the unexpected. This is New York City, and we respond (inaudible). We will continue to update New Yorkers as we get more information. I will now turn it over to Commissioner Iscol (Ph).

ZACHARY ISCOL, COMMISSIONER, NYC EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Thank you, sir. Thank you all so much for being here today. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you to my colleagues for their quick and speedy response to this. I'm pleased to report that there are currently no impact -- no major impacts or safety events related to this earthquake. We're asking all New Yorkers to call 311 to report damage or any issues that you're having.

Also, if you have any need for disaster assistance due to damage or anything like that, please call 311. That is the best place to refer those needs. If you have a life safety issue, please use and call 911 immediately, but preserve 911 for those life safety events.

The team acted immediately. We convene in our emergency response teams and issued guidance to the public. The likelihood of aftershocks remains low. But we do remain vigilant, and we ask all New Yorkers to remain vigilant as well.

We activated our protocols for this earthquake. We immediately started coordinating with all city state, federal and our utility partners. Public notifications were sent out both by notify NYC and our wireless emergency alert system. You can hear some of the phone buzzing in delays from that that had been issued. As soon as it happened, we convened here at New York City Emergency Management in order to be able to send out guidance.

[12:15:00]

We activated -- as soon as we convened here (inaudible) to send out our guidance for what happens during an earthquake, including on the possibility of aftershocks. We contacted our city hall and agency commissioners, as well of all of our partners at the federal and state level. That's also includes all of our utility partners or transportation partners at the MTA, port authority and the airports.

While there is a low likelihood that there'll be aftershocks, we always want to be on the safe side. So, if you are outside during an aftershock, please move to an open area, away from buildings, trees and powerlines. If you are driving, pull over to a safe location. We're asking people to check in on their relatives, on their loved ones, neighbors, especially the children and the -- and their other individuals.

I think that this is also an incredible time just to remind us all, to make sure that we're prepared. So, if you're a New Yorker, if you're visiting New York, we encourage you to sign up for notify NYC. This is available in 14 languages, including American sign language, over a million subscribers. You can sign up by calling 311. You can call up by downloading the app or by going to nyc.gov backslash notify.

We also encourage people to make sure that they have an emergency kit and to make sure that they know the guidance for earthquakes, which as the mayor said to drop cover, and to get under furniture -- sturdy furniture or in a doorway to make sure that you are safe. Please also make sure that you're checking your utilities that you know how to turn them on and off. Especially, if you are a property owner.

With that said, who am I turning it -- over to you -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chancellor Banks.

ISCOL: Chancellor Banks. I'll turn it over to Chancellor Banks for an update on the schools. Thank you.

DAVID C. BANKS, CHANCELLOR OF NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL: Thank you, Zach. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, everyone. So, the earthquake was felt across the entire city and across many of our schools, across all five boroughs. In fact, I was at LaGuardia High School at an event this morning when the earthquake hit. I did not personally feel it but many people in the room felt it.

So first and foremost, what's most important to understand. So, we want to emphasize that we've received no reports of any injury to staff or students. And that's the most important thing as safety is our top priority and ensuring that everyone is safe in our schools.

Immediately following the earthquake, our teams both within New York City public schools and across the city immediately jumped into action. We've been in close and constant communication with City Hall, the Office of Emergency Management, School Construction Authority and other agencies as well.

So, at this moment, there is no indication that any of our buildings were compromised. And our facility staff at the School Construction Authority are quickly and thoroughly inspecting buildings to ensure a safety. And out of an abundance of caution, we've assembled all of our building response teams as well.

So, we've instructed all of our school principals to continue operations and dismissal as normal. We ask the school staff and families to remain calm. And to model that for all of our students, all of our children. Parents do not need to pick up their child early as a result of today's earthquake.

Additionally, all after school programs will continue as planned. If conditions change, our schools will committed -- communicate directly with families. We also will post updates on our social media pages, which can be found at NYC schools. I want to thank all of our school staff and our facility staff for keeping our students safe during times like these.

Their professionalism in the face of an emergency is a role model for all of our students. Again, the top lines, all of our students across the school system are safe. All of our staff are safe. We have no reports of any structural damage to any of our school facilities, while many schools and felt -- in fact felt some tremors from the earthquake. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Chancellor. Next, we'll hear from Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Otto.

[12:20:00]

JIMMY OTTO, NEW YORK BUILDINGS COMMISSIONER: Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Let me say right at the outset that we at the Department of Buildings have not seen an influx of calls regarding building damage. But we want all New Yorkers to know that our team is ready. We are putting on additional construction and engineering professionals from this point on over the weekend.

BASH: Ok. We've been listening to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other officials in New York City, talking about the effects of the earthquake. Right there you heard the gentleman in charge of buildings, very important in New York City -- obviously very dense, saying that they have not seen or heard an influx of calls talking about the damage.

But just as we heard earlier today from the governor of New York, the mayor, asking for people to check in on our loved ones. First and foremost, if there was any damage or injuries, but also interesting that he noted that people should talk about any potential trauma from feeling this earthquake. The good news at this point is that no major damage, no -- and no major injuries that we've heard of, but it is still early and there are still assessments.

We are going to stay on this story and coming up we're going to look at how this morning's earthquake is disrupting one of the busiest travel corridors in the United States. I will also speak with a New York congressman who was part of and felt this earthquake. Stay with us.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: We're following breaking news of magnitude 4.8 earthquake shook New York City and the broader northeast this morning. President Biden has been briefed on this earthquake because epicenter is in New Jersey. CNN's MJ Lee joins me now. MJ, first of all, I -- we didn't feel it here, I'm not sure if you felt it. But I was getting texts from friends in D.C. saying that they did you know, if they felt it at the White House.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I don't think so, Dana. The White House officials I've been in touch with in the last half hour or so, say that they didn't feel anything. Our colleagues who are in the White House booth. They also said that they didn't feel anything. So, I think unlikely the president himself felt this earthquake.

But as you said, we do know that the president has been briefed on the situation. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that they are monitoring the potential impacts of this earthquake. And they're certainly going to be coordinating with state, local and federal officials as well. I mean, this is exactly of course, the kind of response you would expect from the White House after a situation like this.

I should note, the president, of course, is just about to leave the White House for Baltimore. He is headed there, of course to survey the site of the recently collapse, Francis Scott Key Bridge. He is going to be spending the day, meeting with local leaders there and meeting of course with some of the family members of the six people who died as a result of that bridge collapsing.

I can certainly expect though, that as he is on the road today, he is going to continue getting any updates from his advisers on the impacts of this earthquake, certainly something that he is going to continue being keyed in on given the significance of this earthquake, Dana?

BASH: MJ, thank you so much for that reporting. Let's move up north a bit to Philadelphia. That's where CNN's Danny Freeman is. Danny, can you give us a sense of what's happening there? What's the reaction? How much do people feel it in Philly?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes sure, Dana. You know, we've been speaking a lot about New York and the impact that they felt, we definitely felt it here in Philadelphia as well. I was at home, working on a separate piece for actually this hour when -- really our entire building shook.

And I live in a row home. So, I have neighbors who actually live downstairs, and they were the first ones to text me. Hey, did you feel that entire home shake just now? And I said, yeah. And then the email started coming in from CNN that, oh, this might have been an earthquake.

Now it wasn't as impactful as we've seen from some of the videos coming in from New Jersey close to the epicenter. But we definitely felt it was strong enough where I think other people have said similar things. We thought like a massive truck was driving down our street and the place definitely shook, but as of now, we're not getting any reports of damages.

The Philadelphia Police Department, they actually tweeted a little while ago saying that they are aware of the seismic activity, but they were encouraging people not to call 911 essentially, unless people are actually injured. Also note the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, he said that he and PEMA, the emergency management agency here in Pennsylvania, they're monitoring the effects closely as well. Dana?

BASH: Yeah. We were in our morning meeting here, Danny. One of the things we were talking about is the report you were preparing for this show, which we will certainly do another time. My brother called from Long Island, and he said immediately, we just had an earthquake here. He could feel it -- he could feel everything shaking, certainly is not something as I said that we here on the East Coast are used to.

Thank you so much for that report. The earthquake is having an impact on travel in the very busy Northeast Corridor. CNN's Pete Muntean is here in Washington with how this earthquake is impacting transportation. Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, being on an airplane probably one of the best places to be during an earthquake, but for the delays and all the ground stops have been canceled right now. In fact, the last holdout was Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey that has now transitioned to a ground delay. Meaning that flights are delayed at their departure airport bound for Newark 77 minutes.