New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the northeast by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware. New Jersey lies largely within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia. It is the most densely populated state in the United States.

Following the 2006 nuclear explosion in Midtown Manhattan, New Jersey suffered from being in the path of the highly radioactive fallout cloud that drifted southwest from ground zero. As a result, much of coastal New Jersey, mainly Jersey City, was involved in panicked riots during the evacuation process. Those that failed to evacuate from the fallout cloud suffered from varying cases of radiation poisoning.

In the months following the explosion, the entirety of Jersey City was closed off and the boundaries of the infamous "Irradiated Zone" was formed. This stretch of miles of Jersey City featured abandoned skyscrapers, residential neighborhoods and riverside factories, piers and warehouses.

The Irradiated Zone was maintained until September of 2009 when it was deemed safe for re-habitation. However, businesses and families have been slow to resume habitation in the formerly irradiated regions of Jersey City.

Outside of the irradiated zone, much of New Jersey suffered from the riots following the 2006 nuclear explosion and the general quality of life in the state has drastically declined in the years following the bomb with no semblance of an upward swing forecast. Property values are at an all time low and crime across all of New Jersey is continually on the rise.

Major IC Events

Places

New Jersey in the News

July 17, 2009

TRENTON — Authorities in Trenton, the state capital, said that the small earthquake struck central New Jersey. It rattled windows and alarmed residents of several communities. Paul Kirkland, a seismologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, said that a quake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.5 was recorded at 10:34 pm on Friday.

Its epicentre was in the Morris County communities of Rockaway, Dover and Morris Plains. Several buildings at the epicenter were damaged in the quake and fifteen people were reported to have been injured. One on duty police officer, Hector Ramirez (45) was killed when masonry from a nearby building toppled onto his cruiser.

Police said that the quake triggered a flood of emergency calls, with residents reporting a sound like an explosion and houses shaking. Mr.Kirkland said that despite the reports of panic among members of the public, small earthquakes are not unusual in the central New Jersey.

This magnitude, however was unusual. NJPD officers are currently cooperating with agents from the Department of Homeland Security to see if there was any Evolved involvement with the quake.

July 18, 2009

NEW JERSEY — A moderate earthquake shook most of Jersey City early Saturday, rattling nerves along with homes and businesses. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage, authorities said.

The magnitude-5.5 quake struck about 8:40 a.m. and was thankfully centered in the evacuated zone of coastal Jersey City, according to a preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey. That several square mile region has been unpopulated due to unsafe levels of radiation from nuclear fallout since 2006.

Mitchell Gellar, an NJPD officer who was present not far from the evacuation zone, said the quake lasted six to seven seconds and shook his squad car and the surrounding buildings. "Nothing was broken. But it was pretty scary. It was a big one," Gellar said. "I saw portions of the Goldman Sachs Tower falling down to the street a few blocks away, it was wild."

Charlotte Callahan, manager of a Super 8 motel just outside of Jersey City, said the quake had a rolling sensation that startled everyone. "I walked outside and we did have some guests outside, talking about the quake," she said. "They said, 'I didn't know you had those here!"'

The quake was unusually localized, unfelt across the Hudson on Manhattan, leading researchers to believe this quake, and the one earlier on Friday in Trenton may be Evolved related.

Authorities are presently investigating these claims.

September 2009

JERSEY CITY — Representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy, Federal Emergency Relief Management, and the Environmental Protection Agency say that background levels of radiation in the "Unreclaimed Zone" of Jersey City in New Jersey are now within safe limits for human inhabitation. Jersey City's "unreclaimed zone" had been closed off to human habitation since the November 6, 2006 nuclear detonation in Midtown Manhattan.

Despite the fallout having been deemed "safe" for inhabitation in regions closer to the detonation, ground-water contamination in New Jersey (the ultimate end-path of the fallout cloud) resulted in the EPA determining a ten square block region of Jersey City as inhospitable. With the ban removed, businesses and residents of New Jersey will be allowed — after nearly three years — to return to their homes and place of work. The New Jersey State Public Works Department will be working round the clock to repair untended roads and damage to the area sustained from the years of uninhabitation.

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