Rescue teams struggled in the early-morning darkness Wednesday to make their way through the rubble of collapsed buildings after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti late Tuesday afternoon.
The quake, with a magnitude estimated at 7.0, caused the collapse of the National Palace, leveled countless shantytown dwellings and brought more suffering to a nation that was already the hemisphere’s poorest and most disaster-prone.
The earthquake was the worst in the region in more than 200 years and left the country in a shambles. As night fell in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s densely populated capital, fires burned near the shoreline downtown, but otherwise the city fell into darkness.
Battered by major quake, Haiti braces for huge death toll
Unfortunately one group that could do a lot to help is currently in uncertain status itself:
The world body "is still in the process of gathering information on the extent of the damage and the status of U.N. personnel," said Alain Le Roy, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations.
The Brazilian led-mission includes about 2,000 police and nearly 500 civilians. It was first sent to Haiti in 2004, after the ouster of then-Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. An official at U.N. headquarters in New York said the headquarters collapsed, and engineers were trying to clear the rubble.
Mike Godfrey, an American contractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said "a huge plume of dust and smoke rose up over the city" within minutes of the quake. He described it as "a blanket that completely covered the city and obscured it for about 20 minutes until the atmosphere dissipated the dust."
According to the White House Twitter feed, you can text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti. For more information, check out the White House blog's Thoughts and Prayers for Haiti. The $10 will automatically be charged to your cell phone bill. You can also go to the Red Cross or Mercy Corps to make a donation.
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