Haitians in U.S. wait for news and worry

With phone lines down and communication cut, Haitians living in America are "sick with worry" and scrambling for information about loved ones who experienced Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake on the island nation."At this point it looks like it's worse than we all imagined and we still don't know specifics because of the down power lines," Gepsi Metellus said Wednesday. She is the executive director of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in Miami, Florida, which provides services to Haitians in South Florida ranging from help with taxes to how to navigate the American school system."We are assuming there are a lot more casualties than we might have initially thought," she said.

Metellus said she still hasn't heard from her mother, who splits her time between Haiti -- she lives in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince -- and Miami. Her mother flew from Miami to Haiti on Friday. "She's in her 70s. I'm very concerned."Metellus is also trying to find out how the center can best help people in Haiti, but without information, that's difficult to ascertain at the moment. "There are people who want to drop off medicine and food and water at the center, but we don't even know if that's what's needed, much less if we will be able to get those supplies to the island."

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Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. Plagued with "political violence for most of its history," according to the CIA World Factbook, the Caribbean island nation has suffered from colonialism, coups and corruption since becoming the first black republic in 1804. CONTINUE READING...