A former resident of Altona is counting his blessings after experiencing the pair of earthquakes that hit in Mexico City this month.

Jackson Rempel was born and raised in Altona, and graduated from Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna. He said his work with Shell Oil took him to B.C, Ottawa, and now Mexico City to help with energy reform in that country. He and his family have only been living in Mexico City for three months.

He said Tuesday's 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the city hard, and rescue workers continue to work tirelessly to save people from within crumbled buildings.

"People are still running on a lot of adrenaline. The rescue efforts have been unbelievable, people here are forming private groups and going out, getting equipment, shovels, pick axes, food, and digging through the rubble and trying to still find life," he said. "Very soon we're going to start to see a lot of people getting tired and a lot of those efforts will start dying down as well as the time goes on... it'll be more of a taking out bodies versus saving people," he added.

A co-worker of Rempel's stayed up all night Tuesday, helping to rescue people from a fallen seven-storey building. Rempel says the man worked until 5:30 a.m. and still showed up for his day job on Wednesday. "He has the biggest heart I have ever seen," said Rempel. 

Rempel was on his way back to work after lunch, returning from a coffee-run for co-workers with a colleague from Calgary when the quake hit. They were walking up the stairs to his office building when the alarm went off.

"The initial hit just about knocked us to our feet. From there it was a struggle to walk about half a block to where we were supposed to meet. You just balance yourself because it really just throws your whole equilibrium off, you get quite dizzy and nauseous, things around you are moving...the building looks like a stick of Jell-O kind of just waving, the street lamps were moving two feet in every direction," he said.

The first thought for Rempel was to check on his wife and children. However, cell phone reception was down at the time. Finally he received a text from his wife saying that she was fine, and to go check on the kids. His fear grew as he saw smoke coming out of buildings, and he overheard someone say that two buildings had collapsed on the same street where his kids go to school.

"In full business attire I went running the two kilometres from my office to the kids' school and didn't stop till I got there."

Rempel said his children turned out to be fine and the school was still standing. The walk home after the earthquake was dangerous, said Rempel, because bricks were still falling off buildings. He tried to avoid buildings as he walked with his children.

"In the neighbourhood about ten minutes from us where some of my wife's family lives, and in that neighbourhood they were hit particularly hard, so there's a number of buildings that are right down to the ground, so we're talking like a seven-story tall apartment block that is now a pile of bricks that's about a story tall," he said. "Everyone's lives are in there, their cars are underneath because all the parking is underground here."

His apartment was built using earthquake-resistant technology, and was not affected. Rempel and his family were able to wait-out the first earthquake which hit on September 8.

Meantime, Rempel has set up an online fund raiser for a local family that lost their entire home and their vehicle. The money will go towards temporary shelter, food, clothing, etc.

He explained that this effort offers Canadians back home a chance to help where they know that their money is going to directly help a family in need without the worry of fraud or theft.

Looking ahead, Rempel believes the people of Mexico City are resilient. "I think as the time goes on they will be quick to adapt to the new needs."

However in order for the recovery and rebuilding effort to start, he said funding needs to happen.