Rattled by earthquake, but mostly unscathed in New Jersey

April Woerner lived through earthquakes as a child in Japan and the Philippines, so the tremor she felt in Cherry Hill on Tuesday was unmistakable.

"It seemed like it was coming up from the earth," said the 68-year-old woman, a Cherry Hill resident for 35 years whose father served in those countries while in the Army. "It was an irregular shaking, kind of a side-to-side movement. It felt too solid to be a truck going by and creating a vibration. You felt this came from a deeper source."

The 5.8 magnitude earthquake, centered in Virginia, left New Jersey shaken but mostly unscathed, officials reported.

"At this time, no injuries or fatalities have been reported and there are no reports of damage to the state's infrastructure, including roads, bridges, dams, reservoirs, power grids, transit systems, and nuclear power plants," Gov. Christie's office said in an afternoon news release.

No damage was reported at the state's four nuclear power plants, including the nation's oldest reactor, Oyster Creek in Lacey Township. They remained online during inspections after they were classified as having experienced "unusual events," the Associated Press reported.

The state Office of Emergency Management did not rule out aftershocks, but said residents had little to be concerned about considering their distance from the quake's epicenter.

In Camden, all government buildings were evacuated, including the Camden County Prosecutor's Office and City Hall. Employees of the Prosecutor's Office, housed in a three-story building, were told to go home, said spokesman Jason Laughlin.

Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd gave all city workers the option of leaving work early, according to city spokesman Robert Corrales.

The quake caused the partial collapse of a vacant house in the south of the city.

Debris from the collapse crumbled into the home of Emiliano Reyes, crashing through the kitchen door where his mother was washing dishes several feet away.

No one was injured from the collapse, Corrales said.

The vacant house, at Fifth and Walnut Streets, had been boarded up for more than six years, residents said. The collapse prompted the city to begin demolishing it Tuesday.

The quake also damaged Burlington's Temple B'nai Israel. The structure dates to 1801, said temple president Joseph Horwitz.

About 20 bricks fell from the building, with some damaging a congregant's car. The tremor also created openings in the flat roof, causing water standing there to leak through, Horowitz said.

At Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, chief executive Dennis Gomes said customers hurried outside. "Our 14th floor was swaying back and forth like a swing," he told the Atlantic City Press.

The state Emergency Management Office reported two gas leaks in Gloucester County: one in Deptford Township, and another in a building at Gloucester County College. There were no reports of injuries from either leak.

Bridges between New Jersey and Philadelphia suffered no damage, according to the Delaware River Port Authority and the Burlington County Bridge Commission.

Sensors on the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge showed stress and vibration levels on par with those caused by a mid-size tractor-trailer, said Liz Verna, spokeswoman for the Burlington bridge authority.

Area bridges are generally capable of withstanding an earthquake up to 7.0 on the Richter scale, said Ralph Dusseau, a civil engineering professor at Rowan University.

PATCO suspended service from shortly after 2 p.m. until about 4:10 p.m., to inspect its entire line, according to Ed Kasuba, a spokesman for the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA), which operates PATCO as well as the Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross, and Commodore Barry Bridges.

"We wanted to make sure there was no damage from the tremor and nothing fell from an overpass that could damage track," Kasuba said.

In Cherry Hill, building inspectors were checking on high rises for structural damage. As of 3:30 p.m. they hadn't found anything beyond cosmetic cracks and loose bricks, said Gerry Seneski, a construction official.

At the Mark 70 high-rise on Route 70, residents were evacuated for an hour.

John Livsey, a maintenance worker, was on the 13th floor repairing a dishwasher when the tremor struck.

"I thought, 'Wow, I'm having a stroke,' " he said. "The tables and the lamps, they were moving this way and that."

The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust - owner of the Cherry Hill Mall, Moorestown Mall, Voorhees Town Center, and Cumberland Mall - reported no damage.

What is believed to be the region's largest earthquake on record occurred in New York City in the 1700s, according to Dusseau. "It was probably about a 7.0," he said. "Back then you couldn't really guesstimate the Richter scale, so they essentially counted it based on the number of chimneys that fell down."