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."

Other tweets from Elliott:

• "Complete and utter choas on the streets...no power...my heart is beatin outta my chest!....tsunami warnin...I am only a mile inland!"

• "Whoa!!...my bro just informed me that cnn is relayin my tweets!!...please knw that we r safe, and there is currently no threat of a tsunami"

• "Just got word that the airport in Santiago is closed...the tarmac has been reduced 2 rubble...my blood sugar is really hi"

• "Imma Type 1 diabetic, and was sppsd 2 leave sunday.I only packed enuf insulin pump supplies 2 last til then....airports r closed!"

• "The next closest airport 2 where we r in vina del mar is 6 hrs away!!...we've felt about 30 aftershox already!!!"

You can follow Elliott's Twitter feed here: @ElliottYamin.

Elliott also talked to NBC's Today Saturday morning.
According to the Associated Press, at least 78 people are dead after the quake, which struck 200 miles southwest of Santiago and set off a tsunami that has resulted in warnings across the Pacific.