Harpswell was largely unaffected by a magnitude 3.8 earthquake that struck early Monday, Jan. 27, off the coast of southern Maine, according to the town’s top public safety official. Still, some residents said they felt shaking and wondered what was going on.
The earthquake occurred at 10:22 a.m. about 6 miles southeast of York Harbor at a depth of about 8.2 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The offshore quake was “felt widely from southern Maine to northern Massachusetts,” it said.
Mike Drake, Harpswell’s fire administrator and emergency management agent, said he was working on Orr’s Island when Monday’s quake occurred. He “never felt a thing.”
“We found out through Facebook and the noon time news,” Drake said in an email. “There were no calls for service and no reported damage in Harpswell.”
Still, several Harpswell residents reported feeling Monday’s quake on social media. People reported tremors from Bailey Island to Cundy’s Harbor, Allen Point and other locales.
Monday’s event was among the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Maine, according to the Geological Survey. A quake of the same magnitude struck central Aroostook County in July 2006, a magnitude 4.2 quake hit Mount Desert Island near Cadillac Mountain in October 2006, and a magnitude 4.5 quake struck East Waterboro in October 2012.
