The scale and impact of the disaster

A resident navigates through the rubble in Marrakech, Morocco on September 9.  Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

More first hand accounts are emerging as search and rescue teams on the ground in Morocco race against time to locate survivors.

Carmen Merino, a humanitarian worker, was vacationing in Morocco when the earthquake hit. She told CNN's Jim Acosta that she was caught off guard by the earthquake's impact and magnitude.

I heard people screaming... Lights were all off inside the airport and buildings. And then, very quickly, I (recalled other) experiences earlier this year (and) realized it was an earthquake. But honestly I didn't think it (would hit) this hard, with that high a magnitude."  

The 6.8-magnitute quake, which struck late Friday, is Morocco’s deadliest in years. Not since 2004 has the country seen a comparable disaster, when a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the port city of Al Hoceima, claiming around 630 lives.

It was also the strongest to hit the region around the ancient city of Marrakech in a century, according to the US Geological Survey