"I noticed the large windows in a three-story residence were vibrating," Elder Peck said in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News. "I was puzzled as I stared at the windows. Then I sensed the ground trembling. Roberta looked at me and almost simultaneously we said 'earthquake.' ... The ground seemed to be rolling and twisting under us, though we did not fall down."

A distressed elderly woman clung to the missionary couple as the trembling intensified, and frightened people cried and prayed in the street, said Elder Peck, who taught accounting at Utah State University for many years before his retirement. He and his wife are serving their second mission for the LDS Church in Central and South American countries.

"There is a lot of activity at the church administrative offices, and it appears evident that a large welfare/humanitarian services effort (is) under way," he wrote.

Another Utahn, Jorge Arce-Larreta, president and chief executive officer of Alliance Community Services, was in Peru, visiting his mother.

"I was in Trujillo, 400 miles north of Lima, and all we felt was a tremor," said Arce-Larreta in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News.

Arce-Larreta said help is arriving, but the biggest need is for medical attention, as the injured waited to be evacuated to Lima.

"You can see lines of injured people in the most affected cities, waiting to be taken by plane to Lima for better care," Arce-Larreta said. "I have been happily surprised with the willingness of people here in Peru to help."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com