Updated: Haiti quake topples buildings, many casualties

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – A major earthquake hit  impoverished Haiti today, toppling buildings in the  capital Port-au-Prince, burying residents in rubble and causing  many deaths and injuries, witnesses in the city said.
The magnitude 7.0 quake, whose epicenter was inland and  only 10 miles (16 km) from Port-au-Prince, sent panic-stricken  people screaming into the streets as a cloud of dust and smoke  from falling buildings rose into the sky.
As darkness fell amid scenes of chaos and anguished cries  from victims, residents desperately tried to dig out survivors  or searched for missing relatives in debris-strewn streets.
The presidential palace was among buildings damaged,  Haiti’s ambassador to Washington, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told  CNN. “My country is facing a major catastrophe,” he said.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and  has a history of destructive natural disasters. Some 9,000 U.N.  police and troops are stationed there to maintain order.
The quake, followed by aftershocks, prompted a tsunami  watch for parts the Caribbean but this was later canceled.
“Everything started shaking, people were screaming, houses  started collapsing … it’s total chaos,” Reuters reporter  Joseph Guyler Delva said in Port-au-Prince.
“I saw people under the rubble, and people killed,” he  added, saying he had witnessed dozens of casualties.
U.S. President Barack Obama said his “thoughts and prayers”  were with the people of Haiti and pledged immediate aid.
The United States would provide both military and civilian  disaster assistance to the Caribbean country, Secretary of  State Hillary Clinton said at the start of a speech on Asian  relations in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is the  U.N. special envoy for Haiti, also pledged assistance. The  Inter-American Development Bank said it would provide $200,000  in immediate emergency aid.
A local employee for the charity Food for the Poor reported  seeing a five-story building collapse in Port-au-Prince,  spokeswoman Kathy Skipper told Reuters.
Another Food for the Poor employee said there were more  houses destroyed than standing in Delmas Road, a major  thoroughfare in the city.
“Within a minute of the quake … soil, dust and smoke rose  up over the city, a blanket that completely covered the city  and obscured it for about 12 minutes until the atmospheric  conditions dissipated the dust,” Mike Godfrey, who works for  USAID, told CNN.
“The international airport appears to be functioning,” he  added, saying he saw an airliner take off after the quake.
Experts said the quake’s epicenter was very shallow at a  depth of only 6.2 miles (10 km), which was likely to have  magnified the destruction.
Dale Grant, a U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist in  Golden, Colorado, told Reuters there had been no quakes this  large in Haiti for more than 200 years.
“There were two major quakes there in 1751 and 1770 but,  since then, there has not been a quake of this magnitude,”  Grant said.
PEOPLE SCREAMED ‘JESUS, JESUS’
Speaking to CNN from Port-au-Prince, Ian Rogers of the  charity Save the Children said he could hear cries of anguish  and mourning rising up from around the city in the darkness.
Homes and buildings built on hillsides had come crashing  down along with earth and rubble.
“All the roads currently are blocked,” Rogers said.
“People were screaming ‘Jesus, Jesus’ and running in all  directions,” Delva said.
The Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, where many foreigners  stay, suffered at least some minor damage.
A group of 12 U.S. students from Lynn University in Florida  were visiting Haiti with Food for the Poor and some were able  to send text messages to say they were fine, Skipper said.
The powerful quake was felt in southeastern Cuba, about 160  miles (257 km) from the epicenter. Cuban authorities evacuated  coastal residents because of the initial tsunami threat.
“I was seated on the terrace and I thought my chair had  slid out from under me but I realized it was an earthquake,”  said Eduardo Machin, a resident of the coastal city of Santiago  de Cuba. “It was very strong.”
Sailors at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern  Cuba felt the quake but there was no damage to the base or the  detention camp where the United States holds 198 foreign  terrorism suspects, said Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta.
“It just shook a number of the buildings,” Mesta said.
Cruise Line Royal Caribbean said initial reports indicated  there was no damage to its Labadee beach resort on Haiti’s  north coast. No ships were in port when the quake hit, the  line’s spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said.
One ship had been scheduled to stop at Labadee today  but was rerouted earlier in the day because of bad weather.