Wittenberg student studying in Mexico safe following deadly earthquake

A Wittenberg student studying in Puebla, Mexico, near the epicenter of Tuesday’s deadly earthquake, is safe, according to university officials.

“The student's university was evacuated, and she is safe,” said JoAnn Bennett, director of international education at the university.  “The university did not sustain significant damage, and the institution expects to resume classes on Friday. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those impacted by the natural disaster."

RELATED: Mexicans dig through collapsed buildings as quake kills 225

More than 200 people have died following the earthquake, which caused significant damage in the country on the anniversary of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. Buildings collapsed across the area.

MUST SEE: 7.1 Earthquake topples buildings in Mexico City A 7.1 earthquake near Mexico City toppled at least 20 buildings on Tuesday, leaving at least 40 people dead.

Right now, search and rescue missions are underway in the country, which is something many who work on Ohio Task Force 1 are familiar with.  The team specializes in search and rescue, including when buildings collapse.

Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, members of the team, including Xenia’s Doug Cope, traveled to New York City to help with recovery efforts at the World Trade Center.

Watching the dozens of buildings collapsing in Mexico brought back the thoughts of all that goes into rescuing people buried in the remnants of collapsed buildings.  He even compared the damage to another earthquake from 2010 in Haiti.

“What they're facing in mexico city is much like what they faced in haiti in 2010 with the earthquake there,” Cope said. “The buildings that have collapsed are heavy concrete buildings with reinforced concrete, where a lot of large pieces that are either going to have to be lifted out by crane, or going to have to be cut into smaller pieces to be removed by hand. So that's one of the things that they're facing there and it's probably the most challenging thing."