National Palace before and after

[XemaSab]

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I hadn't realized the dome on the left actually slid off sideways!

So horrible!

[Hekate]

2. That is stunning. I feel so sorry for those people...

The pix of the collapsed buildings so far show no sign of rebar--in other words the entire city seems built of unreinforced materials, which is just tragedy waiting to happen when there's an earthquake.

It looks like they'll have a good amount of help from abroad, but with the roads wrecked it will be really difficult to get anything to the back country any time soon.

Hekate

[MadMaddie]

11. This is China earthquake redux

no building codes or standards and mostly civilian shanty houses.

[XemaSab]

12. Or anywhere in the Middle East or Central Asia

:(

[Subdivisions]

3. Oh. My. God. n/t

[bridgit]

4. Devastating!

[Libertas1776]

5. Link to more photos of the stricken area from Reuters...

http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSTRE60B5IZ20100113#a=1

Warning: many pics are graphic.

[Skittles]

8. .

:cry:

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. OMG

That's horrific.

[donheld]

7. so sad

[Subdivisions]

9. Here's another pic:

[dysfunctional press]

10. it looks better before.

[leveymg]

13. Proably aren't many multi-story buildings still standing in Port au Prince

This is really shocking and sad.

[tekisui]

14. I read reports of one 8 story building that has collapsed.

[leveymg]

16. Roads and bridges are probably impassible. Food distribution will be problematic.

People will have to walk out to the countryside to forage for food. As if things weren't bad enough before.

[leveymg]

17. Agricultural and land use map of Haiti. Capital is surrounded by cropland >

Not many bridges or major rivers near the capital to collapse that I could see on Google Earth. Maybe getting basic foodstuffs supplied to the city won't be as big a problem as it might be elsewhere. Let's hope.

[dulurkernomore]

15. Wow...just wow.

Not much you can say after seeing the photos. Such a sad situation for a people that were already suffering. :cry: