\u201cIt was very strong and it was honestly kind of scary,\u201d said Britnee Jeffries. She shared a video with 8 On Your Side showing the mirror in her bedroom shaking.<\/p>\n
Body of American Airlines flight attendant found washed ashore at Florida beach <\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t really worried in a sense that I thought it was here because we don\u2019t get earthquakes here. But at the same time, I was worried because we don\u2019t get them here,\u201d said Jeffries.<\/p>\n Susan Hough is a seismologist with the USGS.<\/p>\n \u201cSeismic waves don\u2019t care about borders. They\u2019ll just travel,\u201d said Hough. \u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019s not huge, but it\u2019s a good sized earthquake.\u201d<\/p>\n At around 2 p.m., viewers began reporting to News Channel 8 that they felt shaking in Hernando, Pinellas, Polk and Hillsborough counties.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d Kelsey Pope reported. \u201cMy whole apartment building was swaying, and since I\u2019m 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!\u201d<\/p>\n One viewer in St. Petersburg said they felt it on the 5th story of their building.<\/p>\n \u201cMy cat was up in her cat tree shaking back and forth and immediately got up concerned and trying to balance herself,\u201d Esther Still told News Channel 8.<\/p>\n A professor from the University of South Florida said the USF Student Health and Wellness Center was shaking for around 15 seconds.<\/p>\n Seismologist and Assistant Professor at the USF School of Geosciences Jochen Braunmiller said this was a notable quake.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are so unusual to have in Florida. So I don\u2019t get, you don\u2019t get too many chances to feel an earthquake. And what I like in this particular case, it\u2019s an earthquake that is large enough to be felt, right, but it didn\u2019t do any damage in Florida,\u201d said Braunmiller.<\/p>\n Another resident, at an apartment in Westchase, first felt the couch shake.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought maybe it was just someone underneath me causing ruckus until I realized everything was slightly shaking,\u201d Taylor F said. \u201cI thought it was me for a second until I put my coffee down, and it also was moving.\u201d<\/p>\n Some vacationers from Southern California, well-versed in earthquakes, were shocked to feel the rumbles while visiting Marco Island.<\/p>\n \u201cThe funny thing is, we both kept talking ourselves out of it, disbelieving that we just experienced an earthquake in Florida,\u201d Art Waloch reported. \u201cThen, management sent a text to all the guests confirming it.\u201d<\/p>\n Reports of shaking are coming in from across Florida, as far north as Jacksonville and Tallahassee, according to USGS<\/a>. The majority of reports are coming from the state\u2019s southwest coast, from Port Richey down to Naples.<\/p>\n \u201cThat really speaks to how strong it is when it hits local to you. And that\u2019s what I couldn\u2019t imagine, like it traveled this far and it was shaking everything in my apartment bad,\u201d said Jeffries.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Did you feel it? Send us any photos or videos at WFLA Report It<\/a>, or send an email to news@wfla.com.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b6debd982ba8bfc294aa9b71b4e01f31.jpeg\"\/)
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