Northeast Alarmed by Meteor Storm
People throughout the Northeast flooded emergency centers with phone calls Monday evening after seeing bright lights in the sky and hearing loud noises. The likely cause was a meteor shower, authorities said.
Sightings were reported from Virginia to New York.
“We originally got a report of a plane crash and now it seems there were multiple meteors coming down,” said supervisor Tara Dolzani of the Schuylkill County communications center in Pottsville, Pa.
Some people reported explosions or thunder, and felt their homes shake. In Montoursville, Pa., there was a report of a “big red ball” in the sky and broken windows from a sonic boom, a state police dispatcher said.
Alexander Wolszczan, an astronomy professor at Pennsylvania State University, said that the thunder or shaking that people felt could have resulted from a sound wave produced by a meteor exploding in the Earth’s atmosphere.
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