Residents of Mexico City, Mexico ran to the streets in panic as the strongest earthquake to hit the country in a century woke them late Thursday night. Officials state it registered at an 8.2 on the Richter scale and was even stronger than the tremor that resulted in 10,000 deaths in 1985. 

“We are assessing the damage, which will probably take hours, if not days,” said President Enrique Peña Nieto. “But the population is safe over all. There should not be a major sense of panic.”

Fortunately, most of the city is stable and in place following the latest quake, but it’s too early to assume the same for neighboring communities in more remote areas. The New York Times reports that at least 23 people died and more may still be buried under debris.

“Please, we urgently need as much help as you can send,”said Pamela Terán, a city councilor. “We need hands and manpower to try and dig out the people that we know are buried under the rubble.”

50 million people felt the quake and many of them left their homes in the night to see buildings moving back and forth and feared for the worst.

“The scariest part of it all is that if you are an adult, and you’ve lived in this city your adult life, you remember 1985 very vividly,” said Alberto Briseño, 58. “This felt as strong and as bad, but from what I see, we’ve been spared from major tragedy.”

During a time where the west coast of the United States is battling an alarming number of wildfires, the gulf is recovering from a massive tropical storm and Florida is bracing itself for hurricanes, one begins to wonder just what is going on with the world?