Diner Special: Eggs and Quake (Re)hash

The Ritz Diner in Livingston was serving up a breakfast special on Wednesday: Eggs and Earthquake (Re)hash. Or so it seemed. Like the shot heard around the world, the  still resonated around Essex County. At the Livingston diner, the table talk competed with the clatter of the plates.

If you missed feeling the quake, you kind of feel you missed out. It’s not like we can – or want – to call a do over. Just ask Joseph N. DiVincenzo, the Essex County Executive, who Patch spotted eating breakfast with his son, Joseph, at the . DiVincenzo says he didn’t feel a thing.

Those who felt the earth move say there were two short five-second shakes, interrupted by a five-second break.  At first, the waitress at the  said she thought it was construction. My husband pictured the high school football team dancing on our roof.

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura thought it was prank. His seat began swaying back and forth, gently, “I thought someone had sneaked into my office."

The county officials were rehashing the day’s events over hash browns and coffee. Not knowing what it was at first, rattled workers filed out of office buildings. This was no joke, but there was no reason to panic. The sheriff said he moved quickly into emergency management mode and reassured employees at the Hall of Records that it was safe to go back inside. “All of our buildings are sound,” DiVinenzo added. “But they did shake.”

The U.S. Geological Survey said Essex County was hit with a minor earthquake that measured 2.2 on the Richter Scale, meaning we were slightly shaken, but not stirred. “First quake I've ever felt. It kind of neat (knowing that no one was hurt),” said Dr. David A. Robinson Professor, the state climatologist.

The rumblings triggered a flood of phone calls to local police departments. DiVincenzo’s son, who was celebrating his 27th birthday with his father at the Ritz, had a direct line to the county executive. When the family's deck at their home in Nutley began to shake, “he called me right away,” DiVincenzo said.

New Jersey doesn't get many earthquakes, but it does get some. Fortunately most are small, according to the New Jersey Geological Survey. Any damage has been minor: items knocked off shelves, cracked plaster and masonry, and fallen chimneys. Perhaps because no one was standing under a chimney when it fell, there are no recorded earthquake-related deaths in New Jersey, Daniel R. Dombroski, Jr. writes for the Geological Survey web site.

The lingering effects of the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Central Virginia were still being felt on Wednesday.  In Washington, D.C., the Washington Monument, on the National Mall, cracked at the top and is closed “for an indefinite period.” The National Cathedral was also damaged.

Still the reaction up and down the East Coast, at the Ritz Diner, on Twitter and Facebook, was in some ways, it seemed, stronger than the quake itself.

“I was under my desk in two seconds flat!” said Joel Gillespie, who works in Fredericksburg, Va. “Diving under my desk was what I learned in school, but I guess that’s more for a tornado.”