Haiti’s capital shattered by 7.0-quake

13 jAN 2010:

Dazed and injured Haitians sat on darkened streets pleading for help on Wednesday and untold numbers were trapped in tonnes of rubble brought down by the strongest earthquake to hit this poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years.

The extent of destruction from Tuesday afternoon’s 7.0-magnitude tremor was far from clear — and estimating the number of casualties was impossible, save for the dead lying among thousands of collapsed buildings in Haiti’s capital.

The ornate National Palace crumbled into itself, the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission collapsed, and swaths of rickety shacks lay in shambles. Clouds of dust thrown up by falling buildings choked Port-au-Prince for hours.

The United States and other nations began organising relief efforts, alerting search teams and gathering supplies that will be badly needed in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.