heidi | Port au Prince has been destroyed

help_haiti

All three Doctors Without Borders locations. The air traffic control system. United Nations buildings. Homes. The presidential palace and government buildings and schools; the closest you can come to saying anything was lucky is that the quake happened when it did and not three hours earlier when schools and government offices would have been full.

They believe that hundreds of thousands may have been killed, but the final death toll may never be known.

FiveThirtyEight has a terrific piece about the history of Haiti - why it's been so damaged by political *and* environmental catastrophies over the last 100+ years.

I live only 700 miles from Haiti, and people across Miami today are waiting to hear from friends and relatives; our local disaster teams are heading down there throughout the day, but the infrastructure of the country has been wracked by the earthquake so terribly that it's unclear if help will be able to get to those who need it to save their lives.

It will take years to rebuild the country - as Anderson is reporting on CNN right now, there is a huge need for anything and everything.

I put together some links to organizations and charities soliciting donations on

help_haiti, which I set up this morning as a locus for an auction of creative works (fan and original) - offering posts should be up this afternoon and bidding can start immediately - but keep checking back as offers will be added into early next week!

help_haiti. Please.