Al Roker Has Candid Reaction to Feeling the NYC Earthquake on 'Today' Set
'Today's Al Roker
Al Roker was shaken up (literally and figuratively) by the earthquake that rattled the New York City area on Friday, April 5.
"I'm sitting in my office at my dressing room here at 30 Rockefeller," he began in a candid video posted to his Instagram page. "And we were having a discussion about a great project that you're going to find out about on the Today show, and all of the sudden, we felt this moving."
"Our food team here, Craig Melvin over there," Roker said while panning the camera to the staff members before him.
He continued, "My dressing room is directly over the prop area and I felt all of the sudden this shaking. And I said, 'Wow, what was that?' And our food stylist Katie Stilo [said] 'Oh it's just them moving props.'"
"I've been in here when they've been moving [props], I've never felt that before," Roker, 69, continued, "And so then we realized there was an earthquake, and we're hearing from tall these people."
"So, uh, where were you?" Roker asked the camera. "Did you feel the earthquake?"
"We got to get to the U.S. Geoloc center and find out what the deal is," he added before reading off comments from social media users addressing the rare event.
To Roker's surprise, viewers from Upstate New York claimed to have felt the rattling. "They felt it in Oswego!" he shared with great shock. "Oh my gosh!"
"This is crazy," the weather presenter shared. "We had us an earthquake."
His sheer astonishment didn't end there, as he exclaimed in the caption of Friday's selfie video: "Wow!!!!! Earthquake. As far north as Oswego, NY and as far South as Southern NJ."
According to data obtained by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a 4.8 magnitude earthquake out of New Jersey rocked the tristate area at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time, with the rumble reported to be felt in parts of Long Island, Connecticut, Upstate New York and as far as Philadelphia and Rhode Island.
