![](\"https:\/\/i4.photobucket.com\/albums\/y125\/TheAnchoress\/earthquakehaitibyEduardoMunozReu-3.jpg\")
\nPhoto by Eduardo Munoz, REUTERS<\/em><\/p>\n
The people of Haiti are perhaps the poorest in the Western Hemisphere<\/strong>. An Earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter Scale<\/a>. You\u2019ll recall, the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 was also 7.0, and it pancaked portions of a bridge. Haiti has not got California\u2019s stringent building codes, and they certainly do not build to survive quakes. This event has resulted in numerous building collapses, including hospitals. Haiti in now under Tsunami watch, and things sound very bad<\/a>:<\/p>\n One witness says buildings have collapsed in Port-Au-Prince and people can be heard screaming. The witness says dead and injured are under the rubble. Ambassador Raymond Alcide Joseph told CNN he was heartbroken as he had just spoken by telephone with a senior presidential aide who described scenes of chaos and devastation.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had to stop his car just about half an hour ago, and take to the streets, start walking, but he said houses were crumbling on the right side of the street and the left side of the street,\u201d Mr Joseph said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some initial pictures of the devastation, here<\/a> and here<\/a><\/p>\n Via Hot Air<\/a>:<\/p>\n Another video via Chuck Simmins<\/strong> who is really the go-to guy on the web<\/a>:<\/p>\n Auza reported that many government buildings had been razed. All of the Ministry buildings but one were on the ground, as were the Presidential Palace and the schools.<\/p>\n \u201cParliament with the Senators, the schools with the children, the supermarkets were reduced to nothing,\u201d the nuncio stated.<\/p>\n The nuncio had made his way across the city to see the Haitian President and \u201cexpress his condolences and solidarity\u201d and found that, because they had been outdoors, he and his family had been saved although their home had crumbled.<\/p>\n People who live in front of the collapsed U.N. headquarters had reported to Auza that the head of that mission, Hedi Annabi, was trapped inside with hundreds of others.<\/p>\n The nuncio said that he had returned to his residence later in the morning to find \u201cPriests and Sisters in the street, no longer with homes. The Rector of the seminary saved himself, as did the Dean of studies, but the seminarians are under the rubble. You hear yells everywhere from underneath the rubble.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n I will be donating to<\/strong> Food For the Poor<\/a>, an terrific organization serving those in desperate need in the Caribbean and Latin America. I have written before<\/a> about the excellent work<\/a> they do, and the people they serve<\/a>. And they really do serve<\/em>. In 2008, over 97% of their donations<\/a> went directly their programs in aid to the poor.<\/p>\n A donation to their General Fund \u201cgoes to where the greatest need is at the moment.\u201d That would be Haiti, right now and they\u2019ve created a dedicated contribution page<\/a>. Food for the Poor is helping to get information out<\/a>:<\/p>\n \n\u201cEverything started shaking, people were screaming, houses started collapsing \u2026 it\u2019s total chaos,\u201d Reuters reporter Joseph Guyler Delva said. \u201cI saw people under the rubble, and people killed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n A local employee for the U.S. charity Food for the Poor reported seeing a five-storey building collapse in Port-au-Prince, a spokeswoman for the group, Kathy Skipper, told Reuters.<\/p>\n Another Food for the Poor employee said there were more houses destroyed than standing in Delmas Road, a major thoroughfare in the city.<\/p>\n Panic-stricken residents filled the streets desperately trying to dig people from rubble or seeking missing relatives as dark fell shortly after the quake. \u201cPeople were screaming \u2018Jesus, Jesus\u2019 and running in all directions,\u201d Delva said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Donate securely here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow their news updates on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n Other ways to help: <\/strong> Reports of bodies<\/strong> being piled in the streets<\/a><\/p>\n America Magazine<\/strong> has an update from Catholic Relief Services<\/a>:<\/p>\n Karel Zelenka, CRS\u2019s country representative for Haiti told CRS spokesperson John Rivera the devastation is unlike anything he\u2019s ever seen. \u201cI\u2019ve been in earthquakes before,\u201d Zelenka told Rivera. \u201cThis was a major earthquake and a direct hit [on the capital]. There must be thousands dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a disaster of the century,\u201d he reported in a blog post. \u201cWe should be prepared for thousands and thousands of dead and injured.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera described conditions in Port-au-Prince as \u201ctotal chaos.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n NYC<\/a>: Mayor Michael Bloomberg says his Mayor\u2019s Fund<\/a> will be assisting Haiti.<\/p>\n Chuck Simmins <\/strong>has lots more<\/a> news updates and more places to donate<\/a><\/p>\n I will post more organizations (and their updates) as I find them. This WSJ piece is horrifying<\/a>.<\/p>\n Doctors Without Borders:<\/strong> they\u2019ve lost all three of their facilities<\/a> in Haiti. The Hospitals in Haiti are in chaos<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reader DeLynn sends along updated posts<\/strong> from a missionary friend in Haiti<\/a> who is posting on Facebook:<\/p>\n \n6:30 a.m.\u2013We are still alive at this point. We spent the night under the stars up in the hills. Didn\u2019t sleep too well. The streets are completely packed with people wandering around. It\u2019s 6:30 AM. The damage here is Petit Goave is massive. Our house is still standing for the moment but another one two houses up from us collapsed.<\/p>\n 6:30a.m.\u2013The main stresser right now is the continual tremors. They continued all night and right up until 4 seconds ago. It\u2019s like things have not settled yet. Even if we live to tell about this, Haiti is in the middle of a major catastrohe. I\u2019m not trying to sound dramatic, but I want folks to keep praying. This isn\u2019t over yet.<\/p>\n 7:30a.m.\u2013I keep hoping to wake up and find this was all a very bad dream, but it\u2019s beginning to seem like it\u2019s real. Phone lines are mostly down still so we are unable to communicate even within Haiti. And with no electricity the radio stations here are all out in our area.<\/p>\n 7:30a.m.\u2013To show you how bad it is, for those who have stayed at the hotel here across from the big Catholic church. The Catholic church is completely reduced to rubble. The whole area looks like a war zone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Gateway Pundit:<\/strong> Archbishops Serge Miot of Port Au Prince Killed in Quake<\/a><\/p>\n Michelle Malkin:<\/strong> chronicles how America is helping<\/a><\/p>\n Doctor Zero:<\/strong> Our Duty to Mankind<\/a>:<\/p>\n In a nation with 22% real unemployment, people who haven\u2019t worked in months are digging deep to make Red Cross donations. . . . the governments and people of other nations make admirable efforts, but none has the combination of strength and compassion that makes Americans the first to lift debris from broken bodies, or raise emergency medical tents where hospitals once stood. The selfish and brutal tyrannies jockeying for dominance of the post-American world do not have the heart, and the good people fearfully watching their shadows lengthen don\u2019t have the wealth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Which brings to mind this 2003 essay by Thomas Sowell<\/a>.<\/p>\n CNN is announcing that about 9,000 UN Peacekeepers<\/strong> are unaccounted for. France fears that the entire UN contingent are dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the 2004 Tsunami, President Bush<\/strong> sent the navy to help. It seems President Obama will do the same<\/a> in this situation. That\u2019s good. CNN announces that the USNS Comfort<\/a> has been deployed as she was during Katrina<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ed Morrissey notes<\/strong> that the death toll in Haiti may exceed<\/a> the horrifying numbers of that event.<\/p>\n Animals<\/strong> always know<\/a><\/p>\n Prayer:<\/strong> Commenter Ellen notes that asking Ven. Pierre Toussaint, a former slave, born in Haiti<\/a>, to pray for Haiti is a good idea. I agree. Over at Happy Catholic<\/a>, one of Julie\u2019s commenters, noting the psalms eerie ability to speak to the day writes:<\/p>\n just take a look at the second Psalm from today\u2019s Office of Readings<\/a>: Some will say \u201cwhere is God in all of this?\u201d The answer, of course, is that God is in the response.<\/p>\n Lots of video<\/strong> here<\/a> and here<\/a><\/p>\n Your Help is Urgently Needed<\/a><\/p>\n Also blogging:<\/strong> Photo by Eduardo Munoz, REUTERS The pictures at the Boston Globe are bone-chilling (Picture #37 gives you a really good grasp of the scope of this disaster) The people of Haiti are perhaps the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. An Earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter Scale. You\u2019ll recall, the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charitable-stuff","category-haiti"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe pictures at the Boston Globe<\/a><\/strong> are bone-chilling<\/a> (Picture #37 gives you a really good grasp of the scope of this disaster)<\/p>\n
\nThe Pope\u2019s Representative to Haiti:<\/strong> gives a first hand account<\/a> of the destruction:<\/p>\n
\nSpokesperson for Catholic Relief Services<\/strong> expects deaths to number in the thousands<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe Pope has activated<\/strong> worldwide Catholic relief<\/a> for Haiti.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i4.photobucket.com\/albums\/y125\/TheAnchoress\/foodforpoorgraph.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCatholic Relief Services<\/a>
\nUnited Methodist Committee on Relief<\/a>
\nThe Red Cross<\/a>
\nSalvation Army<\/a>
\nProvidence in Haiti<\/a>
\nAmerican Jewish World Service<\/a>
\nLutheran World Relief<\/a>
\nCross International<\/a>
\nWorld Vision<\/a>
\nInternational Orthodox Christian Charities<\/a>
\nBeyond Borders<\/a>
\nMercy Corps<\/a>
\nPartners in Development<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe earth moved and shook,
\nat the coming of his anger the roots of the mountains rocked
\nand were shaken\u2026
\n\u2026but the Lord was my support.
\nHe led me to the open spaces,
\nhe was my deliverance, for he held me in favour.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nBelmont Club<\/a>
\nFausta<\/a>, also linking to relief efforts.
\nNY Times Blog<\/a>
\nMaxed Out Mama<\/a>
\nBaldilocks<\/a>
\nConfederate Yankee<\/a>
\nFr. Steve\u2019s Blog<\/a>
\nGay Patriot<\/a>
\nJust One Minute<\/a>
\nNoisy Room<\/a>
\nNeoNeocon<\/a>
\nCatholic Vote Action<\/a>
\nModerate Voice<\/a>
\nKathryn Jean Lopez<\/a>
\nRand Simberg<\/a>
\nInsty links and has more<\/a>. Thanks!
\nSweetness and Light<\/a>
\nBookworm Room<\/a>
\nNew Advent<\/a>
\nInside Catholic<\/a>
\nMidwest Conservative Journal<\/a>
\nHollywood Unites for Haiti<\/a>
\nFrugal Cafe<\/a>
\nAnd Sometimes Tea<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"