Quake Jolts Northeast U.S., Canada; No Major Damage

A strong earthquake rattled much of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada on Friday, shaking buildings in both nations, knocking out power and phone service in much of Quebec province and frightening thousands of people, authorities said.

There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injury.

The Canadian government said that the earthquake, which was measured at a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale, was the most powerful temblor to strike the region since 1935. It was felt as far south as Washington.

The quake’s epicenter was 90 miles north of Quebec City, in the Laurentides Provincial Park area near Chicoutimi, Quebec, a spokesman for the Geological Survey of Canada said. Chicoutimi is about 200 miles northeast of Montreal.

An aftershock, estimated at 4.5 on the Richter scale, struck the same area about four hours later, the agency said.

The chief engineer of Quebec City, Claude Vincent, said the quake caused “a few cracks in the walls” of buildings there.

“We’re on the seventh floor and I thought we were going to be on the first,” said Charlie Popejoy, 80, of the central Ontario city of Orillia.

Earthquake scientists in Canada and the United States said the earthquake struck the same area where a smaller “foreshock,” recorded at a magnitude of at least 4.5, was felt Wednesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that Friday’s quake released about 175 times more energy than the foreshock. Quakes with a magnitude of 6.0 are capable of causing severe damage in populated areas.

“Power and phones are out over much of Quebec (province),” said Mary Cajka of the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa. “This is very, very large for eastern Canada. This is really unusual.”

The quake was felt as far west as Sarnia, Ontario, across Lake Huron from Michigan, Cajka said.

The tremor Friday was the strongest to hit eastern Canada since an earthquake measuring 6.2 struck Temiskaming, Quebec, in 1935, Cajka said.

The quake was felt throughout eastern Canada, including Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, Ottawa and along the shores of the St. Lawrence River. Canadian Press reported that the quake lasted from 15 seconds to 2 minutes.

The news agency said traffic lights were out in Quebec City, and there was no electricity in Montreal’s central train station and major hotels. Telephone lines also were down around the island.

Rail Line Shut

Canadian Press said the tremor caused the ground to cave in beneath a railway track just west of Montreal at the approach to a railway bridge. It said the damage forced Canadian National railroad officials to shut down the major east-west rail line from Montreal to Senneterre, 220 miles to the west.

Canadian television showed a number of people who suffered minor injuries when shoppers panicked in a Quebec City shopping center because the lights went out.

“It was widely felt in the north-central and northeastern regions” of the United States, said Arch Johnston, director of the Center for Earthquake Research at Memphis State University in Tennessee.

Little Experience

The quake surprised Northeastern residents, who have had little experience with tremors.

“I felt the vibration of the building for about three seconds,” said Curtis Sykes, who works on the 24th floor of an office tower in lower Manhattan. “The building swayed appreciably.”

In Syracuse, N.Y., Paul Ackerman, a corrections officer at the Auburn state prison, said he saw a bridge shake on his way home.

“I could hardly believe it,” he said. “That kind of thing doesn’t happen here.”

No Damage Found

In New York City, firefighters went to 40 locations where there were reports of tremors, but no damage could be found, fire Lt. Kenneth Murphy said.

Tremors were reported in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Police, radio and television stations in the Northeast were deluged with calls, officials said, as houses shook, ceilings cracked, dishes fell from shelves and windows rattled. In the central Vermont community of Berlin, a chimney collapsed, but no injuries were reported.

In Maine, the quake broke windows and knocked pictures off walls. However, the Secret Service in Kennebunkport said the quake was not felt at the weekend home of President-elect George Bush and his wife, Barbara.

120 on 52nd Floor

The quake rattled Boston’s Top of the Hub restaurant on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Center while about 120 people were dining, said maitre d’ Stephen Brown. “It was enough to make you feel queasy,” he said.

“I was sitting watching TV and all at once I started feeling dizzy,” said Roy Tabikha of Cambridge, Mass. “I thought there was something wrong with me, then I realized everything was shaking.”

“We ran out of our house. Our lamp shade was shaking. We were shaking,” said Carol Dalessandro, 40, a travel agent in Wakefield, Mass.

In Pennsylvania, the tremors rattled windows on the sixth floor of Erie’s Hammett Medical Center and in the control tower of Erie International Airport, four floors above ground level.

“One lady called us and said she had whitecaps in her fish tank and her chandelier was shaking,” said Cpl. Clifford Williams of the Pennsylvania State Police.

Eugene Kolo, who lives on the ninth floor of a suburban Detroit apartment, said he was cooking dinner when the tremor struck.

“My soup was moving side-to-side,” he said. “When I went into the other room, I had to grab my stereo.”

Police departments in all six New England states were flooded with telephone calls from people who reported feeling tremors.

“I saw my own salt shaker doing a little dance on the kitchen table and I was prepared to leave the house,” said John Gifford, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management.