READ: How You Can Help with Haiti Disaster Relief

The outlook for Haiti is grim.

A catastrophic 7.3 earthquake with an epicenter near Port-au-Prince has destroyed much of the capital city. Approximately 2 million people live within the disaster zone. Casualties could be in the hundreds of thousands. Haiti, already the poorest nation in Western Hemisphere, has seen its virtual and physical infrastructure collapse.  Most communications are down, massive aftershocks happen by the hour, and poorly constructed hillside shanty towns are collapsing like houses of cards

Haiti already has very high rates of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, viral and respiratory disease. Many thousands will have no access to life-saving medications.

The U.S. State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1.888.407.4747.

Wyclef Jean has issued an urgent pleas to help his struggling homeland. Writing at his website, the popular singer and producer said: "Haiti today faced a natural disaster of unprecedented proportion, an earthquake unlike anything the country has ever experienced. I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse. The over 2 million people in Port-au-Prince tonight face catastrophe alone. We must act now."

How you can help:  Use your cell phone right now to help via texting:
Text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 (American Red Cross).

• Donate via the American Red Cross new LGBT donation site HERE. The program was created by the gay-owned Olivia, Atlantis and RSVP cruise lines to track LGBT donations.

• Or go to Redcross.org and click Donate or call (800) REDCROSS.

• Or, donate through the LGBT-run Rainbow Fund.

• UNICEF requests donations for relief for children in Haiti via their Haiti Earthquake Fund. You can also call 1-800-4UNICEF.

• Doctors Without Borders is in the disaster zone and set up clinics to treat injured. Donate any amount to help their efforts.

• UN World Food Programme  needs all resources.

• Go to Redcross.org and click Donate or call (800) REDCROSS.

• The U.S. Special Envoy to Haiti, President Bill Clinton, hopes to bring a major humanitarian mission to the island. Donate through the Clinton Foundation or text HAITI to 20222 to donate $10.

Or visit your nearest Lowe's and donate food, water, clothing or cash to the Red Cross.

Twitter has become an invaluable source of information on this tragedy. Search via #Haiti and #RedCross.

Find other ways to help via the Center for International Disaster Information. Please help.

Comments

[QH]

Things like this really put things into perspective, and allow at least me to step back and look @ life a bit...more objectively. My heart and prayers go to all of these people and their families near & far.-QH

[woodcut]

Atheists can donate here: http://tinyurl.com/y9sl6ky

[Face and Waist]

Rod, this is great thanks.
I texted Yele twice today, it's not much but all i can do right now.

[Jarid]

and if anybody wants to donate to a tough grassroots organization that has minimal overhead and 20 close partner orgs on the ground, Operation Green Leaves' website is http://www.oglhaiti.com/.

They've just set up a special fund to help individual families who they know personally, and who are desperate, so even a micro-donation can make a big difference here.

I personally know Nadine Patrice, OGL's E.D., who is a friend & colleague in the burgeoning Restoration movement. She is from Haiti, and her longtime work in helping restore forests to Haiti's ecological collapse has provided health, hope, and income for people who have little.

As she said today: "Millions of dollars have been given to the government of Haiti for more than 20 years, yet there is NO adequate fire department. That is UNACCEPTABLE."

And thanks Rod for being on top this story. I know what pain feels like, and that doesn't even begin to compare to the excruciating, body-torn pain people down there are experiencing at this very moment.

[nahtans]

Give something people... this is truly devastating