Fury of Nautre Struck Again, Haiti hit hard by a Catastrophic Earthquake, man is helpless as always.

EPICENTRE: The 7.0 magnitude earthquake was centred about 16 kilometres west of haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

Tens of thousands of people are feared dead in Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake, buried beneath demolished schools, hospitals and homes as traumatised citizens mill in streets strewn with rubble and scattered bodies.

As more than 30 aftershocks continued to shake the devastated capital Port-au-Prince, residents tried to rescue people trapped under rubble, clawing at chunks of concrete with bare hands.

An estimated 3 million residents are spending a second night without shelter in the shattered country.

The UN chief said 16 UN personnel were confirmed dead late Wednesday in the earthquake that decimated Haiti’s capital, with 100 to 150 UN workers still unaccounted for, including the mission chief and his deputy.

Secretary-Getneral Ban Ki-moon announced that 11 Brazilian peacekeepers and five international police officers – three from Jordan and one each from Chad and Argentina – were killed in the “horrendous” quake.

UN officials said 56 others were injured. Seven who were seriously hurt were evacuated from the country, they said.

“Many continue to be trapped inside UN headquarters and other buildings,” said Ban, noting that includes the UN’s mission chief, Hedi Annabi, and his chief deputy, Luis Carlos da Costa. “Other peacekeepers and civilian staff from many member states remain unaccounted for.”

UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said at least 10 people were pulled alive on Wednesday from the lower floors of the five-story headquarters building for the UN peacekeeping mission, which collapsed in Tuesday’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake quake.

Earlier on Wednesday tens of thousands wandered dazed and sobbing in the chaotic, broken streets, hoping desperately for assistance.

One young man yelled at reporters in English: “Too many people are dying. We need international help … no emergency, no food, no phone, no water, no nothing.”

Bodies were visible all around the hilly city: under rubble, lying beside roads, being loaded into trucks.

Asked by a CNN reporter how many people had died, President Rene Preval replied “I don’t know,” adding “up to now, I heard 50,000 … 30,000.”  

THE DEATH TOLL

Mr Ban said he was immediately dispatching Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet, who was Annabi’s predecessor in Haiti, to Port-au-Prince to take over as acting chief of the UN mission and co-ordinate the international emergency aid effort.

The UN chief said Mulet would arrive Thursday morning and hold immediate meetings with Haiti’s President Rene Preval and Haitian officials.

“Most urgently is the emergency search and rescue: People buried under the rubble are still alive. We must save them, as many as possible, and we must move immediately,” Ban said. ”To the people of Haiti, I say this: We are with you. We are working quickly, as fast as humanly possible.”

 Port-au-Prince ”is 80 percent destroyed,” said Montas’ successor, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

“Saw hundreds of bodies in the street this morning and people trying to reach survivors under buildings and carrying the wounded on doors and makeshift stretchers. Most everything above one-story has been leveled,” and there have been ”more than 30 aftershocks,” Montas wrote in an e-mail.

Haitian Red Cross spokesman Pericles Jean-Baptiste said his organisation was overwhelmed and out of medicine. “There are too many people who need help … We lack equipment, we lack body bags,” he told Reuters.Normal communications were cut off, roads were blocked by rubble and trees, electric power was interrupted and water was in short supply. The only lights visible in the city came from solar-powered traffic signals.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking heavy equipment to move debris and sufficient emergency personnel.

RESCUERS EN ROUTE

One of the city’s best-known hotels, the Montana, had collapsed, said Haitian businessman Manuel DeHeusch, a tile factory owner, who added the hotel owner, his aunt, had died buried in the rubble

“I am appealing to the world, especially the United States, to do what they did for us back in 2008 when four hurricanes hit Haiti,” Raymond Alcide Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to Washington, said in a CNN interview.

US President Barack Obama called the quake an “especially cruel and incomprehensible” tragedy and pledged swift, co-ordinated support to help save lives. The Pentagon was sending an aircraft carrier and three amphibious ships, including one that can carry up to 2,000 Marines.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she had decided to cancel the remainder of her trip to the Pacific and to return to Washington because of the earthquake in Haiti.

 “What we are seeing is severe traumas, head wounds, crushed limbs, severe problems that cannot be dealt with with the level of medical care we currently have available,” said Paul McPhun, operations manager for the group’s Canadian section.

The University of Miami School of Medicine sent a plane full of doctors and nurses to set up a field hospital.

The World Bank pledged an additional $100 million. The United Nations said $US10 ($NZ13.5) million would be released immediately from the its central emergency response fund and it would organize a flash appeal to raise more money.

HOUSES TUMBLED, CARS BOUNCED

The United States, China and European states were sending reconnaissance and rescue teams, some with search dogs and heavy equipment, while other governments and aid groups offered tents, water purification units, food and telecoms teams.

The quake hit at 5pm Tuesday local time (11am Wednesday, NZ time), and witnesses reported people screaming “Jesus, Jesus” running into the streets as offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed. Experts said the quake’s epicentre was very shallow at a depth of only 10km, which was likely to have magnified the destruction.

Witnesses saw homes and shanties built on hillsides tumble as the earth shook, while cars bounced off the ground.

Haiti’s cathedral was destroyed and media reports said the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, had been found dead in the wreckage of the archdiocese office.

NZ FAMILY IN COLLAPSED HOTEL

Kiwi woman Emily Rejouis, desperately searching for her family in earthquake-devastated Haiti, has managed to get her youngest daughter, Alyahna, out of the rubble alive.

It is understood the daughter, 2, was found under the body of her father Emmanuel, and has a broken leg, Radio New Zealand is reporting.

Her husband Emmanuel is believed to be dead while her two other daughters, Zenzie and Kofie-Jade are still  buried under toppled buildings after an earthquake struck the capital of the impoverished Caribbean country yesterday.

Emily Rejouis, originally from Nelson, rang her step-sister Caroline Larnach in Auckland last night on a borrowed satellite phone amid the chaos in Haiti because there were no emergency services on the ground.

An emotional Ms Larnach said the family was desperate to get help to find her step-sister’s family.

“We’re just absolutely desperate to have some help for our family. We’re just absolutely distraught with what’s happening.

“We need support from the New Zealand Government and from any services that are represented in Haiti.”

Ms Rejouis had returned from the collapsed United Nations building to the Karibe Hotel in Port-au-Prince, to find it a pile of rubble.

Nine Australians known to be in Haiti are safe, but fears remain for others.

Australian aid worker Ian Rodgers says the earthquake struck with “extreme force and ferocity”.

“What’s resulted is a lot of landsliding, and buildings have collapsed and then fallen down the hillside,” he told Network Ten from Port-au-Prince.

“Electricity is now off. We have had reports hospitals are damaged and destroyed. We’re trying to find out what is functioning and what is not functioning.”

Mr Rodgers – Save the Children’s senior emergency adviser – said he could hear people pleading for help.

“There’s a lot of distress and wailing of people trying to find loved ones who are trapped under buildings and rubble.”

 Distraught, covered in dust and desperate, the people of Haiti appear barely able to comprehend the tragedy that has overtaken them.

Many spent the desolate hours after the earthquake milling around in the streets or constructing the most rudimentary of shelters where they could cower for the night.

The quake itself measured 7.0 on the Richter scale- but some of the 30 aftershocks were almost as strong, leaving the shanty-towns of Port-au-Prince echoing with the heartrending sound of screams and sobs.

Some clustered together for comfort. Others lay prostrate in the street, unable to pick themselves up.

It is still difficult to assess the sheer scale of the devastation. When the earthquake came, buildings crumpled like paper and whole towns were swept down hillsides.

The wretchedly poor country of Haiti simply cannot afford to construct robust buildings to withstand such natural disaster.

The Distressed, Haiti, in images, screaming for help and support of the world community, the petro dollars, neuclear weapons, and the farse display of wealth in many parts of the world should pause to help Haiti and its people. Distraught: The earthquake laid waste to much of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, including this woman’s home in a shanty town on the outskirts of the city

Enlarge   Destroyed: Residents pass by collapsed buildings – only a cross remains standing

Stunned: A woman crouches among the rubble in Port-au-Prince

 

Landslide: Many poorly constructed homes were simply swept away by the magnitude of the quake

A large section of Haiti’s National Palace was destroyed in the earthquake

Poverty stricken: A woman lies on the ground as others stand oustide a market that collapsed when the earthquake struck

 

Homeless: Hundreds spent the night at Place Boyer in Petion-Ville as aftershocks continued to decimate the region

Reduced to rubble: Hotel Villa Creole in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, crumbled

People in Port-au-Prince desperately search for survivors following the quake

Rescue: A woman is pulled from the ruins by two rescuers. Many have been forced to dig with their bare hands

Concertina: The poorly constructed buildings of Port-au-Prince simply could not withstand the quake