Patrons and employees of the Bagel Bin in downtown Bernardsville told NJ Advance Media they felt the earthquake early Friday morning, but no one said they'd sustained any damage to their homes or been injured.
Rich Green, a customer, said the earthquake shook his Mendham Road house, which was near the epicenter of the quake.
"It was a huge boom," he said. "The ground was shaking. My wife thought it was thunder, I thought it was some type of explosion."
Abby Chernin, a Bagen Bin employee, said she hadn't heard the earthquake, but her husband had jumped out of bed because of it.
Chernin said she asked her husband, "Are you going to make sure we weren't being robbed?" But, she said, then they realized what had actually happened.
Sari Mazen, another employee, said she, too, had initially thought it was thunder. Mazen said this was her second New Jersey earthquake in recent memory, the last occurring more than two years ago while she was on a beach in Belmar.
Comment: The fact many studies and reports state that the West Coast is "overdue" for a massive quake should make this new report even more sobering to those who live there. Between San Andreas, Cascadia in the Pacific Northwest, and Yellowstone, there is the potential for a huge amount of damage and suffering if any or all of those at-risk areas experience a massive earthquake.