The shaking lasted about five or six seconds, knocking over a plant and a few knickknacks around Cervantes' home. Following a mild aftershock, he called relatives in Elko, Nev., who reported something odd just prior to the quake.

"The dogs were howling before it happened," one of Cervantes' children in Elko said over the phone.

Cervantes also called a friend who works at the 4 Way Truck Stop in Wells, where Cervantes worked for a while. The word from his old employer was that a ceiling had caved in. Cervantes said the truck stop and adjacent restaurant with "old-style home cooking" are a major employer in Wells.

At a casino just a stone's throw across the state line from the pawn shop, everyone among a bus-load of people outside a casino said they felt the quake. One man was playing the slots when his machine started to shake.

A woman with Peppermill Inc., which operates three casinos in the Wendover area, said there was no damage at any of the casinos. She was in a casino basement at the time of the quake.

"It shook everything down here," said Lisa, who, because of company policy, was not allowed to give her last name.

A little farther down the road at the Desert Discount Liquor Store, where there are a lot of bottles on the shelves, not one fell to the ground.

The temblor shook much of the Wasatch Front, although there were no early reports of damage in Utah.

Police dispatchers in Ogden, Davis County and Salt Lake City all said they felt the shaking. Dispatchers in Wendover, Utah, said they had received numerous calls from people who felt the shaking, but there were no early reports of damage.

Ogden police officer Tim Shelstead was running radar on 7th Street when his car began shaking.

"I thought it was a train going by with no train," he said.

It wasn't until after residents started calling emergency dispatchers and the information was relayed over police radio that he realized it was an earthquake.

The Greater Salt Lake Area Chapter of the American Red Cross sent several volunteers and its Emergency Response Vehicle to Wells.

Five volunteers were dispatched to Nevada from Utah with additional people put on standby, said Red Cross spokeswoman Ashlee Gunter.

The group's Disaster Services trailer is supplied with blankets, cots, food and drinks to provide support to residents and emergency responders.

A radio communications team also was sent to Nevada from the Red Cross.

The Red Cross encouraged residents of the Wells area who were affected by the earthquake to log on to the organization's "Safe and Well" Web address, www.redcross.org, and click on and register as safe and well.