I would be very surprised to hear there were no fault lines in a coastal
area, especially New York, because I know they *do* have earthquakes on the
US East Coast from time to time (I've just never heard of any major ones
having happened there within living memory). I lived in the Philadelphia
area for 13 years and we had maybe 2 in all that time that were reported in
the media -- Richter ~3-4 or so

  I may have erred on the year.. the quake happened sometime in the late 
1800's.
I DO know that it comes up in the media every so often because there is a 
chance
of it happening.  Slim, but definitely possible.