Quake rattles nerves, skyscrapers in Midwest

Damage slight despite dozens of aftershocks

Mike Dunkel cleaned up at his Mt. Carmel, Ill., liquor store after yesterday's earthquake. The 5.2 magnitude temblor, centered in nearby West Salem, shook buildings from Atlanta to Nebraska. (Daniel R. Patmore/Associated Press)

WEST SALEM, Ill. - Bricks shook loose and fell from buildings. Walls cracked. Books tumbled off shelves.

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered near this southern Illinois town struck before dawn yesterday, rocking skyscrapers in Chicago, 230 miles north of West Salem, but doing little damage and seriously hurting no one.

It was the kind of tremor that might be ignored in earthquake-savvy California, but the temblor shook things up from Nebraska to Atlanta and rattled nerves in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and Louisville, Ky., where bricks toppled to the pavement.

"We thought it [the house] was falling on us, we really did," said Anna Mae Williams, 85, who was shaken awake at 4:37 a.m. in tiny West Salem, six miles from the epicenter.

Dozens of aftershocks followed, including one with a magnitude of 4.6.

The quake is believed to have involved an extension of the New Madrid fault, a network of deep cracks in the earth's surface, the US Geological Survey said. The fault is at the center of the nation's most active seismic zone east of the Rockies, something that's known to Midwest residents, even if they forget it now and then. The last severe earthquake in the region was a 5.0 magnitude quake in 2002.

Williams said she knew exactly what was happening because it reminded her of an earthquake back in 1968. Others had no idea what was going on.

Janet Clem of nearby Mount Carmel thought a nearby power plant had exploded and was just as afraid when she realized that what she'd heard - "a heck of a rumble, then a loud kaboom" - was in fact one of the most powerful earthquakes in Illinois history.

"I'm terrified, I'm not going to lie to you," she said after the earthquake collapsed her porch. "I've never experienced anything like that, and I don't want to experience it again."

The earthquake was the talk of towns throughout much of the Midwest.

"I just saw my house just shake. Golly," said Mike Morrow of Mount Carmel.

Morrow's two-story apartment building was evacuated because of loose and falling bricks.