WESLACO – CHANNEL 5 NEWS spoke with Jose Armora, a former resident of Donna until moving to Mexico in the 70s. He currently lives in Puebla, the city about 30 miles north of the earthquakes epicenter.

"I just stepped into my living room and all of a sudden the whole house started shaking," said Armora as he described what happened.

He said the whole ordeal felt like an eternity, "You could hear the rumble in the ground it was very, very low intense you could hear it and all of a sudden everything shakes and things start falling from the wall. It gets scary cause you are afraid the house can cave in so you go out."

In the end, his house held up. Other homes in the city did not.

"The new houses and the new buildings, they are built to resist these things, but we have buildings over 300 years old so it gets bad," he said.

Armora said the power grid also took a hit, "We are lucky to have power but 3/4 of the city doesn't have power."

Tuesday also marked the 32nd anniversary of another major earthquake which claimed the lives of thousands in Mexico.

"At 11, all the government employees and schools, they practiced what to do in an earthquake. So everybody practiced this morning and then two hours later the earthquake happened," said Armora.

He calls it a tragic coincidence.

Right now, everyone is busy contacting friends and family to see if everyone is alright.

Armora said he also has family in Mexico City, which was also hit hard. So far he says they are doing alright.