Elliott Yamin was in Chile, participating in the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, when an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country early Saturday morning.

Elliott is in Viña del Mar, about 90 miles away from the quake’s epicenter. He was not injured in the quake, and he was at his computer on the sixth floor of his hotel when it struck around 3:30 a.m. local time.

“Huge earthquake just now in Chile!!….I swear I thought this was the end of my life!!!!!” he tweeted immediately after the quake hit. Later, he posted, “So…1 min, I’m trashin this competition on twitter, the next,I’m runnin 4 my life 2 safety!…what a contrast!…I hope & pray yall are ok!”

“The building was swaying back and forth, as was my room,” Elliott later told CNN. “Things were starting to fall off the wall. The lights were flickering on and off. Then that swaying, very abruptly turned into just a very violent shake.”