It’s just coming out that at least a hundred thousand people may have died in the Haitian earthquake (according to the Haitian Prime Minister) making this the worst catastrophe in Western Hemisphere history.

(UPDATE: In an interview with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, Haitian President Rene Preval has more recently said that he has “heard reports of death tolls ranging from 30,000 – 100,000” but that “it’s too early to give a number.”)

For the island nation of 10 million people, this has now gone from horrifically tragic to entirely unthinkable.

CNN seems to be ahead of everyone on the latest info out of Haiti, so check their Haiti Earhquake: News Update for the best info (particularly now that Anderson Cooper is in-country — follow the latest from Anderson’s blog and all of Anderson’s updates from Haiti on Twitter).

The Lede from the New York Times and the Huffington Post’s continuing coverage are the other two best sources I’m finding.

The Miami Herald should also presumably be able to show the human tragedy better than most in the hours and days to come given its proximity to the island and large Haitian population (which is something that can only be matched in America by New York City).

UPDATE:

Here’s is Anderson Cooper’s first-hand report as he flew over Port-au-Prince in a helicopter at around 10:00 am this morning. (via Huffington Post)

UPDATE:

The Washington Post has offered up this map of where the earthquake/aftershocks struck.

SOURCE: USGS | GENE THORP AND BONNIE BERKOWITZ / THE WASHINGTON POST

UPDATE:

While backtracking through some of the morning’s stories, I came across this excerpt from the post Anderson Cooper wrote while he was on his way to Haiti, which I found particularly moving.

I’ve made this trip before. In 1994 I drove into Haiti from the Dominican Republic. It wasn’t a natural disaster then, it was a man-made one.

The military dictator who was running Haiti was about to be run out of town, and U.S. forces were on their way to return the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was a scary time. The thugs who worked for the government still roamed the streets. When U.S. forces finally arrived, I was at the port waiting for them along with hundreds of excited Haitians.

I will never forget the joy, the hope, it was palpable. People hugged one another in the streets. I remember a Haitian woman grabbing me, saying “merci, papa,” as if I had something to do with it. I didn’t. I just felt lucky to be there.

I’ve been back to Haiti a lot over the years, in good times and bad. It is a remarkable country, the people are strong. To survive they have had to be. I wish them strength in the difficult hours and days ahead.

Katie Couric is also on her way to Haiti so look for more updates from her via her Twitter account and her corner of the CBS empire.

UPDATE:

More terrible news from CNN.

1 p.m. — 40,000-45,000 Americans in Haiti, the U.S. State Department says. The Embassy has been in touch with about 40. No confirmed deaths. About a dozen injured. “Clearly that will go up,” says Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley.

12:30 p.m. — At least 15 U.N. peacekeepers reported dead.

UPDATE:

CBS has video of rescue and recovery efforts from last night. (via The Lede)

UPDATE:

The video below contains another first-hand audio report from Anderson Cooper, talking about what sounds to be a non-existent recovery effort in Port-au-Prince. (via CNN.com)

“No matter what street you go down in this area, there is someone trying to be rescued. There are flattened buildings with small groups of neighbors and family literally digging through the rumble — digging through concrete — with their hands. With their fingers. Occasionally you see a shovel or a pickaxe or a chisel. It is slow, laborious work and it is often unsuccessful work. Many times the voices which were crying out hours ago are now silent.”

Later on, he adds:

“In the downtown streets of Port-au-Prince, I haven’t seen any heavy earth-moving equipment whatsoever … I haven’t seen any concerted, organized relief effort. What I’ve seen is neighbors pulling together for neighbors, family members desparately trying to do what they can to save their loved ones. You find a lot of people just standing outside of destroyed buildings and you go up and start talking to them and they’ll say ‘My wife is inside.’ And you say ‘Is she alive?’ and they just shake their head. ‘No. She’s dead.’ And yet they have nowhere else to go. They’re just standing there and there is no chance that person is going to be removed from that building any time soon.”

He also talks more on the heart-crushing death toll he has already seen.

“There are bodies — I don’t want to say on every block — but it’s every few blocks. You see a white shroud on the street corner or in the gutter and you know it’s a body. Or three bodies. Or four bodies. Sometimes they’re not even covered in shrouds, they’re just laid out like that. I just saw what must have been a five-year-old, six-year-old girl whose body was covered by part of a cardboard box.”

Listen to the full 7-minute account here.

In medical relief news, Doctors Without Borders had three facilities in Haiti but all three were severely damaged in the quake to the point that they are now unusable. They’ve shifted to temporary shelters, but cannot provide much in the way of real care in such a limited environment. The Lede has a transcript of the below video, which contains this somber announcement from Paul McPhun, the organization’s operations director in Haiti:

“The best we can offer them at the moment is first-aid care and stabilization. The reality of what we’re seeing is severe traumas—head wounds, crushed limbs—severe problems that cannot be dealt with at the level of care we currently have available with no infrastructure really to support it. So our major priority and focus is to re-establish as soon as possible a secondary level of surgical capacity in the country.”

Devastating. If there’s any good news in the below video, it’s that they “should have another 70 international staff available over the next few days with specialties available to respond to these more immediate medical emergency needs.”

You can read more about Doctors Without Borders’ struggle to provide care here.

UPDATE:

Even the President of Haiti is now homeless. He doesn’t know where he will sleep tonight.

More on the 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti last evening that has left “thousands” dead and Port-au-Prince is in shambles. [UPDATE: You can see the Haitian tragedy in photos from the Boston Globe.]

The Haitian president, René Préval, told The Miami Herald that the toll was “unimaginable” and estimated that thousands had died. Among those feared dead were the chief of theUnited Nations mission in Haiti and the archbishop of the capital, Port-au-Prince. “Parliament has collapsed,” Mr. Préval was quoted as saying. “The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.”

More details:

A hospital collapsed in Pétionville, a hillside district in Port-au-Prince that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, a videographer for The Associated Press said. An American government official also reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.

Tequila Minsky, a photographer who was in Port-au-Prince, said a wall at the front of the Hotel Oloffson had fallen, killing a passer-by. A number of nearby buildings had crumbled, trapping people, she said, and a Unibank bank building was badly damaged. People were screaming.

“It was general mayhem,” Ms. Minsky said.

This was the largest earthquake in at least 200 years on the island of Hispaniola. There have reportedly been more than 30 aftershocks of 4.5 magnitude or higher since as well, each of which has put additional strain on the already damaged foundations and walls throughout the island — most of which were built well below the construction standards of the developed world.

This is a catastrophe in not just the way we use the term within our little industry but on a human and emotional level that few of us can personally comprehend. Let’s all hope that search and rescue efforts can be as expedient and successful as possible in the next 36 hours.

Ways You Can Aid Recovery

The first thing you can do is text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 through the Red Cross.

Huffington Post has a list of other ways you can help through donation as well photos of the devastation.

•The American Red Cross is pledging an initial $200,000 to assist communities impacted by this earthquake. They expect to provide immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support. They are accepting donations through their International Response Fund.

•UNICEF has issued a statement that “Children are always the most vulnerable population in any natural disaster, and UNICEF is there for them.” UNICEF requests donations for relief for children in Haiti via their Haiti Earthquake Fund. You can also call 1-800-4UNICEF.

•Donate through Wyclef Jean’s foundation, Yele Haiti. Text “Yele” to 501501 and $5 will be charged to your phone bill and given to relief projects through the organization.

•Operation USA is appealing for donations of funds from the public and corporate donations in bulk of health care materials, water purification supplies and food supplements which it will ship to the region from its base in the Port of Los Angeles. Donate online at www.opusa.org, by phone at 1-800-678-7255 or, by check made out to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave, Suite A, Culver City, CA 90232.

You can also follow all the latest news via Twitter and see some of the destruction as well as an interview with Haiti’s ambassador to the United States in the CBS News videos below.

Residents of Haiti are seeing the sun rise over their devastated country after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the country’s captial of Port-au-Prince. Thousands are feared dead in the notoriously poor country where unstable shanty towns make up the majority of the cities, especially densely populated Port-au-Prince.

Heads of government organizations were killed as was the Archbishop of Haiti, along with hundreds, possibly thousands, of the nation’s residents.

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The French foreign minister said that the head of the United Nations mission in Haiti had been killed when the mission’s headquarters collapsed. The minister, Bernard Kouchner, told French radio stations that Hedi Annabi, the Tunisian head of the United Nations’ Haiti mission, and “all those who were with him and around him” were dead. Fourteen members of the United Nations cultural agency were reported missing.

This earthquake was the worst in the region in more than 200 years.

Foreign governments and aid organizations around the world are mobilizing. The International Red Cross has said that the Port-au-Prince airport is open and relief flights would begin today.
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Though Haiti is situated in an area prone to natural disasters, such as tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes, it has seen relatively few natural catastrophes in recent years. The Insurance Information Institute lists the 10 worst earthquakes in terms of victims:

As the country’s residents struggle to cope with what has happened, we will be keeping an eye on all updates regarding this situation. To view a world map all current disasters worldwide, click here.