Published: 12:54AM GMT 13 Jan 2010

Haiti's presidential palace and numerous other government buildings in
the country's capital Port-au-Prince collapsed after the tremor. A
hospital was also flattened, with reports that patients were buried
under the rubble.

Haiti's ambassador to Washington, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN: "My
country is facing a major catastrophe."

Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in the capital
of Port-au-Prince, told US colleagues before phone service failed that
"there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for
the aid group, Sara Fajardo.

"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were
clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the
group's offices in Maryland.

Witnesses said that as night fell, survivors were trying to pull people
out of piles of concrete and twisted metal.

Joseph Guyler Delva, a Reuters reporter in Port-au-Prince, said he had
seen dozens of casulaties.

"I saw people under the rubble, and people killed."

A journalist with Haitian television station Haitipal, interviewed by
telephone from Port-au-Prince, told the station that public buildings
across the capital had been destroyed. The UN peacekeeping HQ was also
flattened and "large numbers" of staff were missing.

"The presidential palace, the finance ministry, the ministry of public
works, the ministry of communication and culture," were all affected by
the quake, the reporter said, adding that the parliament building and a
cathedral in the capital were also crumbling.

Don Blakeman, an analyst at the USGS in Golden, Colorado, said such a
strong quake carried the potential for widespread damage.

"I think we are going to see substantial damage and casualties," he said.

The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-Au-Prince likely
caused widespread casualties and structural damage, added quake expert
Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California.

"It's going to be a real killer," he said.

A local doctor said the death toll would be in the hundreds.

President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with the
people of Haiti and that the United States stands ready to help the
island nation.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is sending disaster
response teams to the island.

USAID said in a statement it would be sending teams including up to 72
people, six search and rescue dogs and up to 48 tons of rescue equipment.

France was also preparing to urgently dispatch aid to the island Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner said.

The earthquake is the strongest ever to hit Haiti.

Minor earthquakes are common in the Caribbean, but there has not been a
major one in Haiti in 16 years.

The country of about 9 million people, most of them desperately poor,
has struggled with political instability and has no real construction
standards.

In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the
mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of the buildings were
shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.

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