TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Residents across the Tampa Bay area reported feeling shaking locally during a large earthquake in Cuba.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), preliminary information indicated a “notable” 6.1-magnitude quake roughly 64.6 miles west-northwest of Mantua, Cuba.

“It was very strong and it was honestly kind of scary,” said Britnee Jeffries. She shared a video with 8 On Your Side showing the mirror in her bedroom shaking.

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News Channel 8 Chief Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli said earthquakes like this are rare in this part of the world, and the one felt on Monday is the biggest one on record for the northern part of the Gulf. The strongest earthquake ever reported in the Gulf happened in 1959, in the southwest portion near Veracruz, Mexico.

“I wasn’t really worried in a sense that I thought it was here because we don’t get earthquakes here. But at the same time, I was worried because we don’t get them here,” said Jeffries.

Susan Hough is a seismologist with the USGS.

“Seismic waves don’t care about borders. They’ll just travel,” said Hough. “It’s maybe a couple hundred miles from where this earthquake happened to to Florida. Parts of Cuba are even closer. And the magnitude six sets, you know, it’s not huge, but it’s a good sized earthquake.”

At around 2 p.m., viewers began reporting to News Channel 8 that they felt shaking in Hernando, Pinellas, Polk and Hillsborough counties.

“I was sitting in my chair working from home when I suddenly felt a distinct shake. At first, I thought it was just my dog Archie moving around, but then I noticed my desk and even the water in my Nespresso machine sloshing back and forth,” Kelsey Pope reported. “My whole apartment building was swaying, and since I’m on the third floor, I honestly thought it might collapse. After a couple of minutes, the shaking stopped, and I realized it had been an earthquake!”

One viewer in St. Petersburg said they felt it on the 5th story of their building.

“My cat was up in her cat tree shaking back and forth and immediately got up concerned and trying to balance herself,” Esther Still told News Channel 8.

A professor from the University of South Florida said the USF Student Health and Wellness Center was shaking for around 15 seconds.

Seismologist and Assistant Professor at the USF School of Geosciences Jochen Braunmiller said this was a notable quake.

“They are so unusual to have in Florida. So I don’t get, you don’t get too many chances to feel an earthquake. And what I like in this particular case, it’s an earthquake that is large enough to be felt, right, but it didn’t do any damage in Florida,” said Braunmiller.

Another resident, at an apartment in Westchase, first felt the couch shake.

“I thought maybe it was just someone underneath me causing ruckus until I realized everything was slightly shaking,” Taylor F said. “I thought it was me for a second until I put my coffee down, and it also was moving.”

Some vacationers from Southern California, well-versed in earthquakes, were shocked to feel the rumbles while visiting Marco Island.

“The funny thing is, we both kept talking ourselves out of it, disbelieving that we just experienced an earthquake in Florida,” Art Waloch reported. “Then, management sent a text to all the guests confirming it.”

Reports of shaking are coming in from across Florida, as far north as Jacksonville and Tallahassee, according to USGS. The majority of reports are coming from the state’s southwest coast, from Port Richey down to Naples.

“That really speaks to how strong it is when it hits local to you. And that’s what I couldn’t imagine, like it traveled this far and it was shaking everything in my apartment bad,” said Jeffries.

The Tsunami Warning Center confirmed that there is no tsunami threat for the U.S. east coast, Gulf states, or the eastern coast of Canada.

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