At 5PM Eastern time, a  7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti, the impoverished Carribbean country. The epicenter was 10  miles southwest from the capital,  Port-au-Prince, according to the United States Geological Survey.

There is widespread damage and panic is spreading; a large number of casualties are expected.  There were two aftershocks — of 5.5 and 5.9 magnitude — that followed in the last hour, and more were expected, according to David Wald, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey.

Here is a report from Gary Pierre-Pierre, who runs The Haitian Times, a newspaper for the Haitian community in Brooklyn:

A major earthquake shook the capital city to its core and left Port-au-Prince into a smoke haze. At this moment, the number of death and people injured are not known. People could be heard screaming and crying. The metropolitan area is home to two million people in an area originally planned for 200,000. Houses are poorly constructed with lax codes, if any. “The earthquake registered at 7.0- with an aftershock of 5.9. The palace has been severely damaged said, Frank Williams, national director for World Vision in Haiti. “This is a catastrophe of major proportions, said Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the United States, on CNN The Situation Room. “The place is really bad now.” Joseph made a plea for the world to come to Haiti’s rescue at this moment of intense grief.