Letter from America: All shook up in NYC
Mayo workwear company Portwest advertising in Times Square, New York on Friday, April 5, 2024, shortly before the city was struck by it's largest magnitude earthquake in 140 years.
The last time New York experienced an earthquake was 1951. It must be a sign.
It was probably that some of the early arrivers from Mayo were shook enough after their first night on the town that they didn’t even realise the city shaking to a 4.8 magnitude earthquake at 10.23am local time today.
The last earthquake wasn’t really in 1951 – it was 2011 – but Friday’s event has already been classified as the east coast’s largest of the last 140 years.
It caused ‘full ground stops’ at both JFK and Newark Airports to allow for an assessment of possible damage, which will have delayed the landing of planes carrying the remainder of Mayo supporters making the transatlantic voyage on Friday. Of all the weekends!
The epicentre has been identified as Lebanon, New Jersey.
Not that I realised at the time but I actually felt it. I was stopped waiting to cross Madison Avenue thinking it was Subway beneath. But my digital footprint (it’s a first to be typing that) tells me that’s exactly where I was at precisely the time of the quake.
Mayo fans will be hoping there’s no aftershocks, particularly of the football variety when their team takes to Gaelic Park for Sunday’s championship showdown with the boys of the Big Apple.
The city is also gearing up to experience the first total solar eclipse in 400 years on Monday afternoon, one where locations across a 124-mile path across the Empire State could fall into total darkness for up to four minutes.
That won’t bother the neon lights of Times Square where Mayo’s very own Portwest – proud sponsors of Mayo GAA – is beaming brightly in the world’s most famous advertising space.
Never a dull moment in NYC.
