An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 struck Wednesday in southern Canada, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The quake struck at 1:41 p.m. ET near the borders of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, about 38 miles north of the city of Ottawa, the USGS said. It was centered about 12 miles deep. The USGS initially assigned it a preliminary magnitude of 5.5.

Ottawa police told CNN that several buildings in the city were evacuated. An operator at the Ottawa Hospital said the quake was felt for about 30 seconds.

Sgt. Marc LaPorte, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told CNN that it was a “slight tremor” and there “doesn’t appear to be any damage reported to date yet.”

There were no reports of major damage in downtown Ottawa, said Barre Campbell, spokesman for the city of Ottawa.

Campbell witnessed self-evacuations of downtown buildings, but said people were filtering back to work.

The quake was also felt in the northern United States.

Karen Evans, who works at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan, about 20 minutes from the Canadian border, felt the tremor.

“A colleague and I are sitting in my office having a conversation, and we feel the building moving. We kind of looked at each other and wondered, ‘is this really happening?’ “

Another work colleague saw the steel frame of the window moving against the cinder block wall, Evans said.

“I was a little bit excited … that adrenaline kind of feeling,” she said. “And then, absolutely scared, wondering should we get out of the building.”
 

– CNN.COM

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