States shaken awake by rare quake in South

FORT PAYNE, Ala. -- An earthquake was about the last thing people expected when they were shaken out of bed early Tuesday by a 4.9-magnitude tremor that rattled seven Southern states and was even felt as far away as Cape Girardeau.

Some thought the boom and rumble was a bomb, a gas truck explosion, a tornado, even terrorism. By the time the trembling stopped, fear began to give way to nervous laughter.

"The quake shook up the chicken shed so bad they all laid scrambled eggs," joked Jim Toler over breakfast at a Waffle House restaurant. "It bounced us pretty heavy."

Authorities didn't report any serious injuries or major damage from the earthquake, which woke up Fort Payne, near its center in northeast Alabama, about 4 a.m. local time. Tying the record magnitude for Alabama, it was also felt in Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It also was felt slightly in Missouri, said Mark Winkler, Southeast Missouri area coordinator for the State Emergency Management Agency.

Most Cape Girardeau area residents slept right through it, he said. "If you felt it, you were a light sleeper," Winkler said.

In Fort Payne, damages were limited to broken plates, some cracked foundations, scattered power outages, crumbling chimneys and several thousand crooked wall paintings.

"Everybody thought it was an explosion. Everybody in the neighborhood was out on their front porch, all the dogs were barking, all the alarms were going off," said Ronnie Crow, an electrical inspector for the city of Fort Payne. "If it was any worse than this, it would be really scary."

Earthquakes are uncommon in the Southeast, and few people in the area had experienced one before. This tremor was centered near Mentone, a few miles from Fort Payne, near the Alabama-Georgia line.

The last earthquake in the region was Dec. 8, 2001, when a 3.9-magnitude temblor shook the Huntsville area. The previous largest earthquake recorded in Alabama was magnitude 4.9 in 1997, centered in south Alabama's Escambia County.

This quake was centered near a stretch of Interstate 59 that crosses through northeast Alabama, the northwest tip of Georgia and into Chattanooga, Tenn.

Terry Camp, the owner of a local Shell gas station, woke up and moved so fast that he cramped up his leg. His dog, a cocker spaniel named Elvis, started barking before Camp felt anything.

"Elvis heard it coming," Camp said. "It scared me -- I've never felt that sensation. It felt like something coming toward you, and then it made a big boom. ... We can laugh about it now that no one died."

Southeast Missourian staff writer Mark Bliss contributed to this story.

So many people called the 911 emergency line that it was overloaded and most calls didn't get through, said police Chief David Walker. A few households reported they lost electricity, and the shaking caused some spring water to get muddy.

Residents said the earth moved anywhere from a few seconds to a full minute, including the mild aftershocks, which were described as being like a hard wind blowing against the side of the house. Many people were surprised by the thundering noise that accompanied the vibrations.

"My little boy thought the aliens were coming, and I thought it was a tornado," said Tonya Wells, a waitress at a the Waffle House. "For me, it seemed like it lasted forever. I woke up yelling, 'Tornado! Tornado!"'

Resident Lorene Rochester at first thought the earth's rumbling signaled the beginning of the end.

"I thought maybe Jesus was coming back," she said. "My sister called me on the phone to tell me about the earthquake, but by the time I reached up to answer it, it was on the floor."

Fort Payne isn't located on a fault line, but seismologists say it is on the Southeast Tennessee seismic zone.

"We haven't had them around here very often. Most everybody was at a loss," said Walker, the police chief. "It's just a natural thing. I guess we're making valleys here and mountains in California."