haiti.

AP photo/The Canadian Press, Montreal La Presse, Ivanoh Demers

It is reported that possibly hundreds of thousands of people are missing or dead in Haiti, where an earthquake with the magnitude of 7.0 struck the country's (impoverished) capital, Port-au-Prince, yesterday afternoon (EST).

photo by Daniel Morel/Getty Images

Damage done to the country's infrastructure has been severe.

Aid workers said the capital's creaky water-delivery system was badly damaged by the earthquake. Apparently "lax building codes" as well as shoddy construction contributed to the collapse of many buildings.

photo by Lisandro Suero/Getty Images


an excerpt from the BBC report:

In the minutes after the quake, Henry Bahn, a visiting official from the US Department of Agriculture, said he had seen houses which had tumbled into a ravine.

"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Mr Bahn, who described the sky as "just grey with dust".

He said he had been walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.

"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just heard a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."

my heart goes out.