Shoppers Drug Mart in Kanata, Ont. (Submitted by Katherine Bruce)

The 5.0-magnitude earthquake that hit western Quebec on Wednesday afternoon was felt across southern and eastern Ontario as well as in some U.S. states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.

Across the country, Canadians described for CBC News where they were and what they were doing when the tremor jolted them.

Dan Bonner of London, Ont., said he and his fiancé live on the 15th floor of an apartment that "began swaying so much it felt like we were on a boat in heavy seas."

"The floor lamp was swaying, and the water in our fish tank nearly spilled over. At first I thought I was experiencing a dizzy spell, but when I looked over and saw the terrified look on my fiance's face I knew it was much more."

The McMillan family lives in Denholm, Que., about 16 kilometres from Val des Bois where the quake was centred. Family members felt an initial quake, which they say lasted for 20 to 30 seconds and then a handful of aftershocks.

"A piece from one of our chimneys fell off and the other chimney has shifted significantly. At one of our barns, there are a couple of big cracks (the largest being around 2 feet long) in the concrete floor and there are some smaller cracks in the ground outside. Our cows ran around in the field during the first quake and first few aftershocks but otherwise have settled down.

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 Downtown Ottawa (Submitted by Caleigh Windolf)

Grace Spicer, a Grade 2 student at Elmdale Public School in Ottawa, said she was sitting on the carpet with her classmates watching a slide show of what the class had done in the past year when she felt the shaking.

"At first I thought it was the big kids running down the stairs but then it kind of got a little bit too loud and shaky to be the big kids. Well we ... we didn't really move up and down ... there was just shaking... then, about 10 seconds later it stopped and then after there was an announcement on the speaker. After that, we just started watching our pictures again! When I got home from school my Dad told me it was an earthquake. I didn't even know!"

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Linda Mason said she was at her grandson's Grade 6 graduation ceremony when the quake hit at Leslie Park Elementary School in Ottawa.

"I thought a plane was about to hit the school. It was very frightening. It appeared that the adults were more upset than the children were."

"However, there was some damage to the school. My grandson has two pieces of plaster that fell from the ceiling of the gym and the graduation cake that was to be served to the parents, had too much plaster from the ceilings for us to eat. We're lucky that that is all that was damaged."

Crooked pictures inside a home in Pembroke, Ont. (Submitted by acongdon)

Tamara D. said she was having an MRI done at a hospital when the whole machine started to shake.

"Inside the tube I was able to look down past my feet to see nurses rush into the room and start hitting buttons to get the bed to exit. At first I thought they just needed to reset the machine but then I saw the panic and both of them trying to disconnect my IV and heart monitor and I was off the bed pulling the lines to get out of the room." The worst part she said was having to get back into the machine to finish the exam. "Hard to stay still when your knees are shaking."

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Josh Brake of Georgetown, Ont., said he was sitting in his office preparing for a sermon when "all of a sudden it felt/sounded like someone was moving massive bin outside my office. Things began to shake and after maybe 3-5 seconds it stopped. CRAZY!!!"

Patricia Reason said she was at her computer when she felt what she described as heavy steps behind her.

Linda Kaczor, who works for the Royal Bank of Canada, wrote, "We all felt a tremor around 1:45 p.m. today in Aurora, Richmond Hill, Mississauga."

Graham Norcutt said he was in the small hamlet east of Toronto called Castleton, Ont., when he felt the tremor.

"I live in a century-old, two-story hotel. It shook the house but did not do any apparent damage," He wrote. "In talking to a few neighbours, there appears to be no damage reported so far."

Sarah Seeger of Goderich, Ont., said, "I have never felt one before and I thought it was all in my head until my coworkers also said they felt it!"

Tom Engberg lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he and his colleagues felt the quake but said it was weak.

"We all thought we were going crazy until we popped our heads up out of our cubes. (Quite funny since we looked like a family of prairie dogs). Anyway, we hope the damage is minimal up there."

The earthquake toppled woodpile outside this home in Pembroke, Ont. (Submitted by acongdon)

Pat Brethour said she was napping at her place in the west end of Ottawa when what sounded like a subway train approaching awoke her. Her boyfriend was working on his salt truck, and "my first thought was that the truck had crashed into the house."

Andy Lang of Cleveland, Oh., said his office building shook noticeably for more than a minute. Some of the office buildings there were evacuated but most were not.

"I've lived here 17 years and have never felt anything like it," Lang said. "I suppose it's payback for the time a power station failure in northeast Ohio blacked out all of southeastern Canada."

Christian Dmytryk said he was at home with his mother and brother in Ottawa when they felt the quake.

"Our house started to shake slowly at first, and then it grew into a louder rumbling sensation. Ornaments fell off of our shelves. I ran upstairs to my brother running around naked telling us to go outside, while my mom was on the ground laughing with her sister over the phone.  She kept telling my brother to get in the bathtub."

Sandra Pasi said she felt the earthquake in Timmins, Ont. "Like most of the reports from Toronto I thought it was a large truck passing on my street, but there was no truck."

Karen Schilling of Woodstock, Ont., said she was in her 11th floor apartment building when "suddenly the chair began to shake, the cat jumped off my lap like she'd been shot - her ears were flat to her head, she looked around weirdly, checking things out. She did this for a couple of minutes."

Shane Feldman was in the middle of writing his Grade 10 English exam in Thornhill, Ont., when the quake happened.

"They STOPPED THE FINAL EXAMS to find out what was going on and look into the situation. It was craziness! Nothing like this has ever happened during exams in Toronto! It was pretty cool!"

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