Photo Gallery Disaster Strikes Haiti
Two men attempt to extricate an injured woman from the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck about 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of the Haitian capital.
Buildings throughout the capital collapsed during the earthquake, causing widespread panic amongst the inhabitants. The earthquake is the most powerful to rock Haiti in 200 years.
A street vendor tries to pick up her scattered merchandise. Many pictures on Tuesday showed scenes of chaos on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Two aftershocks registering 5.9 and 5.5 on the Richter scale followed within an hour of the first quake, with more temblors later.
Survivors try to salvage their belongings. The country may already be facing food shortages.
Not even the presidential palace managed to withstand the tremors.
"So if those buildings are damaged, you can imagine what's happened to all these flimsy abodes around Port-au-Prince in the hillsides," said Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the US.
Pictures of the destruction are arriving from Haiti by cameraphone and Twitter. It will take longer, unfortunately, for relief aid to arrive in the country.
Volunteers salvage a victim from a crumbled building.
Residents stand amidst the remains of their collapsed apartment building. Night broke shortly after the earthquake hit, making the search for survivors even more difficult.
A man has his wounds nursed. Treating the many injured will prove difficult. Hospitals are scarce in Haiti, and at least one collapsed during the earthquake.
Residents look on as a fire further devastates a collapsed building.
With the arrival of aftershocks, additional fires were reported around the city.
Cars were lifted off the ground.
Frightened inhabitants flooded into the streets.
Deep cracks mark the walls of a building that withstood the earthquake.
The damage is by no means confined to the capital. This roof collapsed in Thomassin, 19 kilometers (12 miles) east of Port-au-Prince.
"Because the shock was so big and occurred at such a shallow depth, just below the city, the damage is bound to be very extensive," seismologist Yann Kinger of the Institute of the Physics of the Globe (IPG) in Paris told AFP. A tsunami alert was immediately issued after the earthquake struck.
Countries such as Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy and France have pledged humanitarian aid and relief workers. Preparations for relief shipments to Haiti began on Tuesday.
Don Cambel, an urban search and rescue technician with the Los Angeles Fire Department, prepares to depart for Haiti.
Members of the Commission of Emergencies receive reports of the national situation in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Haiti's neighbor is also located on Hispaniola island.
This March 31 archive photo shows Port-au-Prince before the earthquake.
