LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- People across Tennessee awoke suddenly to shaking from an earthquake in Illinois early Friday, but no damage or injuries were reported.

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The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered six miles from West Salem, Ill., about 175 miles north of Nashville. It was felt in such distant cities as Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa, and Atlanta, nearly 400 miles to the southeast. Dozens of aftershocks followed, one with a magnitude of 4.5.

Tennesseans from Memphis to the Tri-Cities reported feeling the temblor.

Misty McCullum of Millersville said her pictures were askew after her house shook for more than a minute.

In Wilson County, environmental engineer Charlie Robinson said he woke up to a strange noise and found it was Venetian blinds rattling against his bedroom windows.

Nashville music publicist Mike Farley said he was awakened at his home and heard something that sounded like movement in the attic or on the roof. Farley went outside to check, but saw nothing.

Others in East Tennessee reported their beds shaking, windows rattling and furniture rocking.

In Memphis, Eonoe Jones said she was shaken awake and felt like she was being moved to the side of her bedroom, but managed to go back to sleep.

State and federal inspectors joined their colleagues in Illinois, Indiana and elsewhere to inspect bridges, dams and other infrastructure for damage.

"We've had no buildings or roads impacted," said Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jeremy Heidt.

Heidt said state transportation department inspectors had checked bridges and Army Corps of Engineers safety engineers had walked the Wolf Creek, Barkley and Kentucky dams and found no problems.

Heidt said there had been a lot of concern from the public and the agency fielded dozens of telephone calls.

Tennessee State University geology professor David Padgett has studied earthquakes for years, but said he didn’t realize what was happening when he felt the tremor.

"I was up doing laundry, and my whole building just shook for several seconds. And I’m standing there and I’m thinking, 'Is this a big truck going by?'" he said.

Padgett said the quake came from an offshoot of the New Madrid fault line that runs on the west side of Tennessee.

"The question is, 'How prepared are we?' Where do you think people from Memphis are going to come if something happens in Memphis? You know, we might be inundated with tens of thousands of people who are evacuees from Memphis if something like that was to occur," Padgett said.

Padgett said the state is not free from worry about possible damage from future earthquakes.

"Our bridges, infrastructures is not designed for that kind of violent shaking. If you had a bridge or some structure that was weak, that’s all it might take to weaken it further. And we saw what happened in Minneapolis," he said.

The temblor came just days before the Tennessee Army National Guard hosts a major preparedness drill near Memphis beginning Monday.

Almost 2,000 guardsmen from Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri are scheduled to practice how they would respond to a 7.6 magnitude quake in the Memphis area, which is home to about 1.2 million people.

Quake Rattles Kentucky

An earthquake that jolted Kentuckians awake early Friday rattled nerves and sent transportation safety crews scurrying into action but resulted in no reported injuries and limited damage.

The 5.2-magnitude temblor that rattled the Midwest was followed by a series of aftershocks, including one that the state geologist, Jim Cobb, called "scientifically curious" for its strength.

The initial earthquake struck just before 5:37 a.m. EDT and was centered six miles from West Salem, Ill., and 45 miles from Evansville, Ind. The quake drew a quick response as state Transportation Cabinet inspectors checked numerous bridges and roads as a precaution, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sent crews to inspect dams, locks and reservoirs. Both agencies said no quake damage had been detected.

"There is really no fear that any damage has been done to our structures," said Nancy Albright, director for the Transportation Cabinet's Division of Maintenance. "However, we do want to be absolutely certain of the continued integrity of our bridges."

Police and other emergency agencies received an outpouring of calls from jittery residents.

In western Kentucky, Beverly Lee said her area "shook like crazy" in the Reed community in Henderson County but the initial quake caused no damage to her mobile home.

"It was just like someone was standing outside shaking that trailer," she said by phone. "It shook my daughter right out of bed."

Wes Royse, a sales representative at WCLU radio station in Glasgow in south-central Kentucky, said the quake lasted as long as 30 seconds and shook him awake.

"It started out with a real fine shake, and then it got a little bit harder," he said.

In Louisville, the quake caused bricks to fall off part of a building near downtown, and television video showed bricks strewn in the street and workers using equipment to remove them.

Mayor Jerry Abramson admonished the public to avoid inundating the 911 emergency system with calls from those curious about what happened. Metro emergency officials received more than 400 calls in the first half hour after the pre-dawn quake, compared to the 20 or 30 calls normal for that time of day.

"911 is not a service to be used for 'Hey, what's going on?"' the mayor said.

Bill Stephens, news director at WSON-AM in Henderson, said he heard a rumbling when the quake struck, but said he had seen no damage to his home. He said his station received numerous calls from residents.

"There's a lot of fright with this one because of how strong it was and the time of day," he said.

Kentucky State Police dispatcher Natalie Alsip at the post in Henderson, just across the Ohio River from Evansville, said telephone calls poured in to the post and one man reported cracked plaster at his home.

In far western Kentucky, no damage occurred at a uranium enrichment plant and operations continued as normal, said Elizabeth Stuckle, a spokeswoman for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Cobb, director of the Kentucky Geological Survey at the University of Kentucky, said the aftershocks were not a surprise but the strength of a 4.5-magnitude follow up quake was.

"This one is going to be definitely scientifically curious to us," he said.

Cobb said the pre-dawn quake was comparable in magnitude to temblors that hit Kentucky in 1980 and 1989.

Friday's quake was believed to have involved the Wabash fault, a northern extension of the New Madrid Fault, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Just last month, the Kentucky National Guard conducted a five-day seismic exercise involving more than 300 troops from across the state, said Maj. Gen. Edward Tonini, Kentucky's adjutant general.

Lori King, Kentucky's earthquake program manager, said the state was fortunate there were no reported injuries and only minor damage from Friday's quake.

"This should be a wake up call to remind us that earthquakes can and do occur at any time," King said.

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