A powerful 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday afternoon around 5:00 p.m. The epicenter was just 10 miles west of Port au Prince, Haiti's most densely populated city. Initial reports indicate major damage to infrastructure including collapse of hospitals, schools and government buildings. Phone service is out in much of the country making communication, damage assessment and response efforts difficult.

We were able to reach our partners at the reforestation project in Gros Morne who felt the quake in their region, four hours away. They are safe but startled and concerned about the impact of the quake. Below is a report from Sister Pat in Gros Morne.

Haiti Reborn is collecting emergency relief funds and will work with partners to determine the how to direct this assistance as more information is available. Please make a donation to help our earthquake relief efforts at www.quixote.org/earthquake.

Fritz, We have no news of our Port au Prince people. All the Montfortains-- are there because they just finished retreat. Fr. Ti Jean's father died and his funeral was supposed to be tomorrow in Port so they all stayed. I am here with Brittany and Jackie. We felt the earthquake here and so did our sisters in Jean Rabel but we are OK. I don't know about town yet because all the digicel phones are down even though we have a signal. Digicel headquarters in Port au Prince is a nine story building. Pat