Several airports in the East Coast -- including Washington Dulles, Washington Reagan National, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Newark and New York JFK -- suspended flights Tuesday afternoon following a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck the Washington, D.C.-area.

The ground stop at some of the largest airports in the East Coast to allow airport operators to inspect runways and other structures triggered delays and diversions throughout the day, transportation officials say.

"Operations resumed as soon as the airports determined that the runways and associated equipment and facilities were not damaged," says Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. "We do not yet have an assessment of the length of time each airport suspended operations, nor do we have the number and duration of the flight delays or diversions. We'll have that tomorrow at the earliest."

At Washington National, passengers at Terminal A were evacuated for "about half an hour" after reports of gas smell following the earthquake," says Courtney Prebich Mickalonis, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates the airport and Washington Dulles.

Flights were on hold as airport operators inspected the runways, and there were "some residual delays," she says.

Washington Dulles continued to accept arrivals but stopped "briefly" for departures, Bergen says.

The FAA issued a ground stop and evacuated air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty and New York JFK, resulting in delays that lasted about half an hour.

The traffic controllers at Newark moved to a temporary tower in Terminal C and resumed operations in about 20 minutes, says Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. About five flights from Newark were diverted to Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, N.Y.

It took "about 30 minutes" for the controllers at JFK to resume operations, but the airport was back up and running by late afternoon, Marsico says. "There were delays in the system but things are coming back to normal."

Flights at New York LaGuardia continued to arrive and depart throughout the day.

Philadelphia International stopped flights for "a little bit less than 30 minutes," but didn't close or evacuate any terminals, says airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica.

Boston Logan says it accepted nine diverted flights from New York and other airports.