A group of Brooklyn kids will have to shake things up for phys-ed after their school gym was left with large cracks when a rare 4.8-magnitude earthquake rocked New York City Friday.
The gymnasium of the public school building — which is shared by J.H.S. 218 James P. Sinnott and the School for Classics High School — has been deemed unsafe by city officials who inspected the property after the quake.
The East New York gym remains off-limits after “vertical and step-shaped” cracks were found along the interior of the building.
Inspectors told Gothamist that bricks near the cracks could become dislodged and the building will be kept vacant until repairs are finished.
The Department of Education stressed that all school activities would continue because the rest of the building is safe.
“The Department of Buildings and our facilities team quickly inspected the building and DOB issued a partial vacate order for the gym, until repairs can be made — which we do not expect to take long,” DOE’s Nathaniel Styer said in a statement on Saturday morning.
“This was done out of an abundance of caution, and the Department of Buildings confirmed that the rest of the school was safe to use.”
Styer also confirmed that families would be updated directly.
The preliminary 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Lebanon, NJ, around 10:23 a.m. and was felt by an estimated 42 million people on the East Coast, according to the US Geological Survey.
It was the strongest temblor to strike near the city in 140 years.
Following the quake, the NYC Department of Buildings said it received about 80 reports of earthquake-related damage, with most coming from Manhattan and the Bronx.
Building inspectors found no major damages or collapses after investigating the reports although they observed cracks in a few locations.
Out of caution, the department added extra engineering and inspection staff over the weekend to respond to any new reports.
DOB Commissioner Jimmy Oddo told Gothamist it’s important to stay vigilant in the coming days and weeks.
“To New Yorkers, we at the Department of Buildings are concerned about some of the downstream possibilities — cracks that you might see that may materialize or manifest in a week or a month, scaffolding retaining walls,” Oddo said.
“If you see something that is problematic, please call 311.”
The last time an earthquake with a magnitude close to 5 struck near New York City was back in 1884, the USGS said. That quake appeared to have been centered in Brooklyn.
A stronger 5.8 quake was felt in the city in 2011, although its epicenter started in Virginia.
Friday’s temblor was the strongest to hit New Jersey in 240 years, according to the Fox Forecast Center.
