Haitian Novelist Edwidge Danticat: Earthquake "Like the Abyss of Long, Painful History of Natural and Political Disasters"

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The Caribbean nation of Haiti has been devastated by a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake, causing what's being described as a catastrophe of major proportions.

The extent of the disaster is still unclear, but there are fears thousands of people may have died and tens of thousands lost their homes. In the capital Port-au-Prince, a city of two million people, thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed, including hospitals, schools and hotels. The United Nations headquarters was also reported to be severely damaged, and many of its staff are reported missing.

The earthquake struck about ten miles southwest of the capital at around 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Haiti in more than two centuries. It was followed by at least twenty-seven aftershocks, the largest two of which were 5.9 and 5.5 in magnitude. The quake prompted a tsunami alert for parts of the Caribbean that was later canceled.

For hours after the quake, the air was filled with a choking dust from the debris of fallen buildings. People were heard screaming for help throughout the city. A Food for the Poor charity worker in Port-au-Prince told Reuters, quote, "There are people running, crying, screaming. People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights. I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement."

AMY GOODMAN: The historic National Palace has also been severely damaged. President René Préval and his wife are both reported to be alive. A number of nations, including the US, Britain, Venezuela and other Latin American countries, are gearing up to send aid.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has suffered a number of recent disasters, including four hurricanes and storms in 2008 that killed hundreds.

Kim Ives is with us here. He's a journalist with the newspaper Haiti Liberté. He's joining us here in our studios in New York.

Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian American novelist. Her books include Brother, I'm Dying. It tells the story of her uncle dying in immigration detention in Miami. She joins us from Miami. We want to go now to Edwidge.

We welcome you. Our condolences on your country and what it is going through right now. Can you start off by telling us what you have heard from your own family in Haiti?

EDWIDGE DANTICAT: Thank you so much, Amy. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

I have heard very little from my own family, who is -- the relatives that I have in Port-au-Prince. I have not heard -- we've not heard from any one of our family members in Carrefour or in Bel Air. So we're just watching sort of the news footage and trying to piece together, you know, things approximately where they are there. So we've had no contact.

The good news is, we've had some contact with our family that's outside of Port-au-Prince. We spoke last night to my mother-in-law, who's in Cavaillon, which is outside of Les Cayes. And even as we were speaking to her about 10:30, she kept saying, "The ground is shaking, the ground is shaking." But she was fine, and her neighbors were fine. They did not have any damage there. But it's a very different and frightening picture in Port-au-Prince, for we have not had news there.

AMY GOODMAN: Kim Ives, you've got your computer on the table. You've been following tweets as we've begun this show. What are you learning about what's happening now in Port-au-Prince, which many are saying has been leveled?

KIM IVES: Yes, it's apocalyptic. This is definitely the greatest tragedy that has befallen a tragedy-beset country. It's just unimaginable, the destruction -- the roads, buildings, houses. And one has to think, I mean, so much of the construction is done in just concrete without any steel rebar reinforcement. Last year a school collapsed just by itself. And so, you can imagine, with a 7.0 earthquake, what's happening.