Sheriff's officials have been responding to calls from people whose house alarms were activated. They also heard reports of books and groceries flying off the shelves at supermarkets and at a local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Miller said the department was inundated with calls from people who were frightened by the shaking. * An interactive earthquake primer An interactive earthquake primer * 5.4 quake rocks Los Angeles area Photos: 5.4 quake rocks Los Angeles... * Video: Strong earthquake hits SoCal * Post-quake callers overload phone systems, both wireless and wired * What's closed, delayed after quake The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it had no immediate reports of serious injuries. Five people suffered minor injuries at a building in the 3600 block of Wilshire Boulevard in the rush to exit, and flooding occurred at a Macy's in Topanga Plaza. The downtown Stanley Mosk Courthouse on Grand Avenue was evacuated as a precautionary measure but later reopened. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors was in closed session at the time of the earthquake and did not suspend its meeting. Earthquake maps Map Larger Map | KML » USGS shake map | KML » How strong did it feel? » Aftershock forecast » Nearby fault lines Resources » Quake details from USGS » Major historical SoCal quakes | Statewide » Graphic: How to quake-proof your home More news » Latest reports from L.A. Now » Quake occurred about eight miles under Chino Hills » 'Really, really scary' in Chino Hills quake epicenter » L.A. Unified finds no damage at schools » SoCal Theme parks, rides remain open » Quake has everyone a-Twitter | Live search The quake interrupted a meeting of the Los Angeles City Council, causing the 27-story City Hall to sway just as Councilman Dennis Zine was criticizing a plan to increase trash fees. "Earthquake! Earthquake! We've got an earthquake," Zine said as members of the audience began to cry out. Phoenix native Nathan Blaylock was lying in bed watching television in his penthouse apartment in downtown Los Angeles when he felt his first earthquake. "It felt like someone hit the side of the building. It was rocking," said Blaylock, a medical equipment salesman who said he has lived in Los Angeles for about seven months. "It scared me a little bit, then I realized what it was." Elevators at the Pegasus Apartments, Blaylock's building, shut down as a result of the earthquake. Shaking was also felt Orange County and officials were checking reports of possible minor runway damage at John Wayne Airport. "It's the first time in my life I actually got under my desk," said Anaheim Police Sgt. Ken Seymour, a Southern California native. By late afternoon, agencies around Southern California had good news to report. Southern California Edison said its systems were operating normally. A spokeswoman at Los Angeles International Airport said no flight operations had been disrupted, and the only damage appeared to have been to a water heater at Gate 71 in Terminal 7, which caused some flooding in the checked baggage areas. The administration building was briefly evacuated to allow inspectors to check for damage. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported that it had restored light-rail and subway schedules by mid-afternoon, and that inspectors found no damage along Metro's 73 miles of track. Some Amtrak trains were delayed up to an hour or so for track inspections. Classes at Cal State Fullerton were canceled for the day, but all other Cal State and University of California campuses in the area remained open. Los Angeles Unified School District reported minor damage at three schools east of downtown, and said ceiling tiles were damaged at a middle school campus in Chatsworth. On the UC Irvine campus, a community college student attending a special summer program began to cry as her classroom pitched and rolled for about 30 seconds. She was comforted by a counselor and soon was smiling and chatting again. Rides at Disneyland and California Adventure were temporarily shut down after the tremors. Under the park's normal safety procedures, a spokesman said, each ride is shut down after a moderate earthquake and tested before being operated again. The quake was felt forcefully in Long Beach, where a series of sharp, loud jolts hit. Dozens of office workers evacuated high-rise buildings downtown, but there were no immediate reports of damage. Los Angeles County officials closed courthouses in Pomona, Norwalk, El Monte and Long Beach as a precaution and activated the county Emergency Operations Center until 5 p.m. In Los Angeles, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel found herself at the helm of the nation's second-largest city because Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti were out of town on vacations. "It's been exciting," Greuel said at an afternoon news conference after being whisked out of the council chambers, where she had been presiding over a council meeting, and taken to the city's Emergency Operations Center deep beneath City Hall. "All of us who live in Southern California live with the possibility of an earthquake each and every day," Greuel said at the news conference. "Today, we were lucky." In Alhambra, an apartment building rolled and the foundations shook, but not enough to knock books off shelves. By late afternoon, even residents of Chino Hills, the epicenter, were taking things in stride, including Emily Feilen, 11. She was inside her home when the quake hit, and thought the shaking was caused by her father, who was installing bathroom cabinets. "Just get outside," her father, Mike Feilen, told her, and both ran. The shaking stopped just as they got to the street. Three hours later, she was back on the sidewalk -- on her skateboard. Monday's quake stood in sharp contrast to one that occurred in the area in 1987. Then, three people were killed and about 10,600 homes and businesses were damaged in the magnitude 6.1 Whittier Narrows earthquake and a magnitude 5.5 aftershock, and thousands of people were displaced. Many more, their nerves rattled, slept outside on sidewalks or in parks for days after the quake, prompting the Red Cross to erect circus tents for people to sleep in. The quakes caused more than $125 million in damage.

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