Last weekend? I thought it struck Tuesday night.

And by the way, I was surprised no one had started a thread on this topic. I'm glad someone finally posted about it.

Millions?

Not exactly millions. The estimates start around 50K, which is still a HUGE number.

Yes, that is a really big loss for a 7.0 earthquake....

Idealist get your facts straight.. But you are a good person for caring!

i'm doing a drive for this at my school, thanks for bringing it up though, you reminded me to bring in cash!

Millions lost their livelihood.* We're not sending money to those who have perished but those who have lost someone, which is in the millions.

they're infrastructure must really suck, they're going to need lots of money...

It's an island and obviously has a grossly bad density per square mile. And it's not built strong but weak so that hurucans aren't too devastating and rebuilding is easy.

Guys, think before you speak. Haiti is the poorest country in America. Yes it's infrastructure is bad. And no it is not prepared for hurricanes, which devastate the country because deforestation and poor housing conditions cause mudslides. And rebuilding will not be easy. Port-au-Prince has been flattened, with the Presidential Palace, the Cathedral, the parliament building, the UN Peacekeeping HQ, the Tax Office, many hospitals and schools have all collapsed. Oh, and it's not an island. It's 35% of an island.

Well, since the building of infrastructure in many parts of Haiti has actually never been fully accomplished even before the Hurricane, yes, rebuilding will be difficult.

It's rather unfortunate that nations already facing humanitarian crises seem to attract ecological disasters, but then, that is already part of the vulnerability initially I suppose.

If the Hurricane were to have hit the American East Coast, the damage would be equally significant, but the casualties would be far lower.

God is a bastard. :/

what i don't get is why the quake hasn't affected the dominican republic, which is half the island. Or has it, and the press are just failing to be accurate/informative,

it's a decent sized Island... but its epicentre was 15km from the Capital, so thats why its killed so many people there...

is there any count on that yet?
Saw the news here in Australia and its horrible, bodies EVERYWHERE.

I feel so sorry for those people... they are poor and suffer every few years from some tragedy or another.

I donated 90 AUD or about 80 US.
That's all i can afford...

The epicenter was on the sea, wich explains why the quake only hit hard on one side of the island

I heard death toll ranging between 100K and 500K. Huge for the Haitian population.

No offence to anyone here who is catholic, but where is the comments by the Pope on this? 80% of the Haitian population is catholic after all......

Xapi: The epicenter was not on the sea, it was on that big peninsula to the west of Port-au-Prince.

johnfoxarmy: They exist. I don't know why you haven't found mention of the Vatican.

This is when a well-funded military comes in handy. USAF MATS and the Coast Guard have been doing airlifts and airdrops around the clock since the earth started shaking.

"since the earth started shaking." Surely that's an exageration. There are the UN peacekeepers already on the island, but they were initially busy digging through the rubble of their own bases to help survivors. I know aid (in people) is forthcomming from the U. S., the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, France, Spain, Italy, the Vatican, China and Taiwan, and I am sure there are many countries I am missing.

Well, I appreciate the arguments everyone is sharing fervently, but I hope we all can at least donate $25 to help out.

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