ABC NEWS: The quake’s epicentre was only 16 kilometres from the capital Port-au-Prince. About 4 million people live in the city and surrounding area. The 7.0 magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years according to the US Geological Survey, toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and has left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help. The International Red Cross in Geneva has warned that with roads blocked and almost all communication lines down, it is extremely difficult to accurately assess the situation in Haiti. It believes up to 3 million people could be homeless, injured or dead. Television footage from Port-au-Prince showed scenes of chaos on the streets with people sobbing and appearing dazed amid the rubble. Haitian President Rene Preval described the scene as ‘unimaginable’ and said he feared thousands of people had been killed. “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,” he said. Mr Preval described stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped inside the collapsed Parliament, where the senate president was among those pinned under the wreckage. “There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them,” he told the Miami Herald. MORE
PAT ROBERTSON: And you know, Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it, they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince, true story. And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. . . the Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is, is, prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same Islands, uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come, but right now we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable. MORE