Midwest quake felt far and wide

(CNN) -- People nearly 900 miles away felt a magnitude-5.2 earthquake that shook southern Illinois early Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of major damage after the predawn quake, which struck at 4:36 a.m. (5:36 a.m. ET).

However, some minor damage occurred in the region.

In Mount Carmel, Illinois, a porch collapsed, briefly trapping a woman in her home, The Associated Press reported. She wasn't hurt and was freed quickly, police told the AP.

Debris fell on a sidewalk and shattered in Louisville, Kentucky, after part of a cornice fell off a brick building, according to footage from the city's CNN affiliate WHAS-TV. Watch as the quake sends bricks tumbling »

"I woke up when my windows started rattling," Louisville resident Stephanie Kellerman told CNN. "A few seconds later some plaster fell from my ceiling, and my cats reacted by fleeing the bedroom and scattering down to the first floor."

The epicenter of the earthquake -- the strongest in the region in 40 years -- was about seven miles below ground and 38 miles north-northwest of Evansville, Indiana, the USGS said. Map »

A few aftershocks followed, with the largest registering at magnitude 4.5. Its epicenter was 42 miles north-northwest of Evansville.

Nearly 10,000 people had sent reports of shaking to the USGS Web site by 9 a.m. ET.

"You feel the house shaking, but you also hear this sound, this foreign sound that your house is shaking around you, which is disturbing," said Mark Glover, news director of WEHT-TV in Evansville.

People as far away as Niceville, Florida, 891 miles away, reported to the USGS Web site that they had felt the quake.

Reports also came in from such distant places as West Virginia, Alabama and Kansas.

People as far away as southwest Michigan and northeast Georgia e-mailed CNN to say they felt Friday's temblor.

"Pretty typically for these eastern-central U.S. earthquakes, they're felt over a very broad area," said Dave Applegate, USGS senior science adviser, adding that quakes in California tend to be more localized.

The Earth's crust is older and less fractured in the Midwest than in California, and the region's deep sediment "shakes a lot," Applegate said.

"Older crust, when you have an earthquake, it rings like a bell," he said.

The USGS said the largest historical earthquake in the region -- magnitude 5.4 -- shook southern Illinois in 1968.

Air traffic was halted for an hour at Indianapolis International Airport while the control tower was evacuated, CNN affiliate WRTV-TV in the Indiana city reported. Watch as a TV newscast gets a jolt »

And buildings swayed in Chicago's Loop, the AP reported.

"It shook our house where it woke me up," David Behm of Philo, Illinois, told the AP. "Windows were rattling, and you could hear it. The house was shaking inches. For people in central Illinois, this is a big deal. It's not like California."

Radio talk-show host George Noory said he felt the quake in his St. Louis, Missouri, home.

"Everything shook," Noory said. "I thought the building was going to collapse." Watch as the talk-show host describes the early-morning shock »

Bonnie Lucas, who hosts a morning show at WHO-AM in Des Moines, Iowa, told the AP she felt her chair move for five seconds.

The earthquake occurred in the Wabash Valley fault system, adjacent to the New Madrid Seismic Zone, Applegate said.

That zone, named for the town of New Madrid, Missouri, was the site of a series of huge temblors in 1811 and 1812. E-mail to a friend

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