The Best—And Most New York—Social Media Reactions to the Earthquake

New Yorkers are quaking! This morning, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck Lebanon, New Jersey, also rattling New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Massachusetts. The seismic event was a rare experience for East Coasters—who are far more equipped for hurricanes and floods than active fault lines—and, predictably, people took to social media to share their thoughts about it.

Many posts had distinctly New-Yorky overtones. Some, for example, joked about the shoddy construction of many of the city’s old (and new) buildings and the absurd amount of money people pay to live in them anyway.

Others took the opportunity to crack jokes about the dating scene and how the earthquake’s Richter scale rating has some…prescient real-life parallels.

Of course, there was no shortage of comparisons between New York and Los Angeles. (As an LA native, this writer feels like her LAUSD-sponsored education on earthquake preparedness just paid off big time!)

Some X users also joked about New York–centric shows. If there were a Sex and the City episode about today’s events, the earthquake would be the sixth main character.

Exercising their right to criticize the government, New Yorkers also used the opportunity to take a crack at Mayor Eric Adams. People skewered Adams’s fondness for comparing New York to other cities, as well as his amplification of police presence around the city.

Yet the best post of the day wasn’t New York related at all, instead coming from a man in Pennsylvania. We’ll let him speak for himself: