The sky is just gray with dust," said Henry Bahn, an official with the US Department of Agriculture who was visiting in Haiti and a witness to the incident.
This quake occurred under land as opposed to off-shore, so a lot of people were directly exposed to the shaking coming off that earthquake fault, which was quite shallow," he said.
We are trying to get in touch with our people on the ground but we are experiencing communication problems, which is not unusual in a disaster such as this," said United Nations spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker to Agence France-Presse.
In a phone call to CNN, the Haitian ambassador to the US, Raymond Joseph, said: "I'm calling on all friends of Haiti and people who are listening to me to please come to our aid.
The Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, told CNN the Caribbean nation is seeking US assistance, and called the quake a catastrophe of major proportions.
This quake is said to have been the strongest in Haiti in over two hundred years; the last time an earthquake of comparable magnitude was recorded was in 1770.
He continued, "what is important for us in Haiti is that a child needs to have authorisation from this ministry to leave the country".

