Quake Shakes, Scares Half the Nation From Ill. to N.Y. : No Injuries Reported in 5.0 Temblor

An earthquake shook the nation from Illinois to New York today, swaying tall buildings and alarming residents. Some damage was reported, but there were no reports of injuries.

The quake was felt in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, New York and Wisconsin and as far north as Barrie, Ontario. Ira Stohlman, a City Council staff member in Washington said the city government building two blocks from the White House shook.

The U.S. Geological Survey in Washington estimated that the quake, which occurred at 8:47 a.m. PST and lasted about 30 seconds, had a magnitude of 5.0 on the Richter scale and was centered 30 miles northeast of Cleveland.

Police stations, newspapers and broadcast stations were flooded with calls.

Generator Knocked Out

Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. spokesman Lee Bailey said the earthquake knocked out a 650-megawatt generator at the company’s Eastlake coal-burning plant. However, other generators picked up the slack.

A four-foot crack was reported in the municipal building in Sharon, Pa. Mayor Bob Price said the building shook and city employees fled into the street.

In Madison, about 10 miles east of Perry, officials closed the high school and sent students home because of “minor damage.”

Mabel Smith of Toledo said she was “scared out of my wits.”

“I was sitting at my telephone, trying to call long distance out to Napoleon (Ohio) when it hit,” she said. “All of a sudden the floor started shaking. I thought the furnace blew up. My house is very well built. My whole house shook.”

In Lake County, Ohio, schools and businesses were evacuated, according to the Lorain Journal.

‘House Shook Pretty Good’

A Meadville, Pa., resident, Pat Barco, said, “My house shook pretty good, like somebody was shoving it around every way they wanted to.”

Paul Oles, planetarium director of the Buhl Science Center in Pittsburgh, described the quake as “moderately strong.”

“The ground (in the East) is fairly stable. It’s rare to have an earthquake of this magnitude in this area,” he said.

In Niagara Falls, Ontario, a spokesman for the fire department said buildings shook all across the city.

“The chairs were shifting on the floor,” said Platoon Chief Hector Lapierre, who was attending a meeting. “It lasted about 30 seconds.”

The tremor jiggled office buildings in downtown Detroit.

Immediate Realization

In the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, Dale Kemery, president of Kemery Media Co., said that as a former California resident, he immediately realized the shaking he felt was an earthquake.

“All of a sudden, this building started rolling underneath me,” he said. “I sat here about 15 seconds watching the plants swaying to and fro.”

He said his business suffered no damage.

While Alaska and California are perhaps best known as earthquake sites in the United States, ground movement is not uncommon in the East. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 3,500 quakes have been felt east of the Mississippi River since 1700.