Haiti Earthquake Damage Update VIDEO

Biblical was the word Secretary of State Clinton used to describe the damage a powerful earthquake visited on Haiti.

And even in a country that has endured deadly hurricanes, unrelenting violence and grinding poverty, the destruction was epic.

Not even the churches were spared.

In the light of day, the wrath of Mother Nature was revealed. She did not discriminate between rich and poor.

She tore down the Presidential Palace, the United Nations complex, the homes of the wealthy few that hugged the hills above Port-au-Prince.

She tore down the shoddy shanties in the swarming neighborhoods where most Haitians live, surviving on $2 a day.

She reduced hospitals and businesses and schools to rubble, burying thousands in the process.

She knocked down cell phone towers, all but cutting off Haiti from the rest of the world.

The quake survivors who were not heaving aside debris in a desperate search for other survivors stood stupefied by the sheer scope of the ruination.

Others moved about a city that was suddenly strange to them - a lunar landscape created by a remorseless force that left a crucifix here, an edifice there, as if to mock them.

Port-au-Prince was Warsaw or Dresden circa 1945 - a ruined hulk that bore the barest resemblance to what it once was.

Except the shabby Haitian capital was not much of a capital to begin with.

"Port-au-Prince was a lost city. Now it is a destroyed city," former Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said yesterday.

Perhaps now, he said, "this could be a chance to rebuild Haiti in a new way."

Those were hopeful words on a day when the pitted streets of the capital were lined with bodies - most of them shrouded in sheets.

Rebuilding would have to wait. And all day long and deep into the night, the first task of the living was to claim the dead.

Haiti Earthquake Damage FULL VIDEO & PHOTOS

Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the earthquake in Haiti and ensuing destruction, reports out of the country are chaotic and the death toll has not been estimated.

One frequently re-tweeted post on Twitter by journalist Ann Curry indicates that all hospitals in Port-au-Prince have been abandoned or have collapsed:

Doctors Without borders says ALL hospitals in Haiti’s Port au Prince area have either collapsed or been abandoned.

Another terrifying tweet being passed around indicates that the death toll is likely to be very high, and suggests medical assistance is nowhere to be found in the destroyed city:

dead bodies are everywhere i havent seen one ambulance or any proffesionl med care anywhere in port-au-prince

The Prime Minister of Haiti estimates a death toll in the hundreds of thousands. Doctors Without Borders says 800 members are currently unaccounted for, and initial reports indicate Haiti’s main prison has collapsed, freeing many inmates. United Nations mission chief in Haiti Hedi Annabi was likely among a number of UN staff who perished in the quake or aftermath.

Haiti Earthquake Time VIDEO & PHOTOS

Scientists have confirmed that the strongest earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years registered at magnitude 7.0. The tragedy struck at 16:53:09 or 04:53:09 PM local time on January 12. The brute force of the tremors sent down many a building including the UN office in the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince. The presidential palace was also damaged. At least one hospital is reported to have collapsed along with many commercial buildings, schoolhouses, and other infrastructure.

Word from the International Red Cross places the number of affected people at around 3 million. The IRC also estimated that the earthquake claimed around 500,000 lives. With the country being the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, it surely needs help from other countries, some of which have already dispatched rescue groups to help in the search and rescue missions undertaken across the Caribbean nation.

Pandemonium is in the streets as people are left without homes and their basic necessities. There are also hundreds if not thousands of people left untreated. Doctors and other medical workers are hard at work just to treat as many people as they can. With some hospitals damaged bythe earthquake , they have to make do with makeshift triages. It is expected that unless other countries send in needed medicine, there will be a shortage of it soon enough withthe number of people needing medical attention.

Immediately after the earthquake struck, communication lines went down. This made organizing search and rescue missions a nightmare. Even with that handicap though, firemen and policemen along with civilians worked well into the night to help free people from under the wreckage of fallen buildings.

It can be remembered that the nation was recently ravished by a series of hurricanes leaving thousands dead and homeless. Still in rebuilding mode, they are once again hit by this tragedy. Fortunately, several countries are quick to send help like medical professionals and rescue units. Numerous countries have also pledged to send monetary aid to help the ravaged island nation.