Editor's Note: Thursday’s American Morning viewers offered various suggestions for relief efforts in the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake on Tuesday evening. All eagerly awaited reports of active participation by the international community to provide supplies and medical attention, and some expressed frustration as the delay. Others reflected on the destruction in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and wondered about the needs of that community still in dire straits, so many years later.
What do you think of the relief efforts in Haiti? How do you think this compares to the mobilization of efforts for Hurricane Katrina? What ideas do you suggest for relief in the devastated nation?
Many families are waiting desperately to hear from their loved ones missing in Haiti. In Florida, twelve students and two faculty members from Lynn University were on a humanitarian aid trip when the earthquake struck. The hotel they were staying in was flattened. The university says 7 of the 12 students have reported to the American embassy in Port-au-Prince and are safe, Julie Prudhomme is one of those students. Her parents, Steve and Joan Prudhomme spoke with CNN's Kiran Chetry Thursday.
As the death toll rises, the true extent of the damage is difficult to assess. The next twenty four hours is crucial for survivors. What is America doing to help? Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton spoke with CNN's John Roberts on U.S. relief efforts live on American Morning Thursday.
24/7 Stay Informed
cnn.com/haiti
How you can help
cnn.com/impact
Your stories and Images
ireport.com
Connect with CNN on twitter
#HaitiCNN
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) - Their clothes tattered and caked in dirt, their backs sore from clawing through concrete and debris, residents in earthquake-flattened Port-au-Prince waited Thursday for signs that help is on its way.
They slept out in the open on mattresses and cardboard boxes. Those whose homes hadn't been reduced to rubble refused to go inside, fearing aftershocks that could send the structures tumbling.
Some sang and clapped to keep their spirits up. Others wailed. The sounds of gunshots sometimes pierced the air.
"Hundreds of people are all hunkered down for the night, passing time and burning tires to light up the night," Gwenn Goodale Mangin said in the city of Jacmel.
The city - like Port-au-Prince, the capital 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, and other communities in the impoverished island-nation - has been without power and water since Tuesday's devastating 7.0-magnitude quake.
The quake affected roughly one in three Haitians - about 3 million people, the Red Cross estimated. It was so strong that it was felt in Cuba, more than 200 miles away.
"I watched as house after house just pancaked down, right in front of my eyes," said Bob Poff of the Salvation Army, who was driving a pickup down a mountain, into Port-au-Prince, at the time.
Felix Augustin, the Haitian consul general to the United Nations, said more than 10,000 were dead, but President Rene Preval said it was too early to put a number to the casualties.
Government officials feared the death toll might eventually run into the six figures
Read the full story here