A metro Detroit native and his wife describe the scary moments they experienced during the massive earthquake in Mexico.
Related: Massive earthquake rocks central Mexico
Doug and Belen Schmidt live in Puebla, Mexico. Doug is a metro Detroit native from Garden City and his wife is from Chihuahua, Mexico. He has lived in Mexico for 11 years.
"It was quite unnerving. It lasted for 25 to 30 seconds... The damage was actually pretty good. There are a lot of cracks in the buildings down here... and they had actual buildings collapse. Some of those businesses are 300 or 400 years old. It rocked pretty good and everybody was pretty worried about us," Doug said.
They were heading back to work at Omaha Automation de Mexico after lunch when things started to shake in the parking garage of the facility. Doug's wife Belen knew exactly what it was.
"I saw the cars shaking, and dust coming from the ceiling. So, I yelled run it's an earthquake," Belen said.
They ran to safety and immediately began to worry about their baby daughter.
"Our first priority was ... we have a 9-month-old daughter. We took an hour trying to get home to her to make sure she was safe." The couple says traffic became chaotic after the quake.
Doug and Belen shut down Omaha Automation de Mexico when they saw damage to the offices. The building will be closed until the facility can be checked for any structural damage. Click here to see the damage to their offices. While Doug and Belen were safe, very nearby to them in Puebla, videos began to surface showing very serious damage.
