Earthquake in Haiti – This Post Contains Graphic Images

(DenverPost) – Haitians are piling bodies along the devastated streets of their capital after a powerful earthquake flattened the president’s palace and the main prison, the cathedral, hospitals, schools and thousands of homes. Untold numbers are still trapped.

President Rene Preval says he believes thousands of people are dead even as other officials give much higher estimates – though they were based on the extent of the destruction rather than firm counts of the dead.

His prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, tells CNN: “I believe we are well over 100,000,” while leading senator Youri Latortue tells The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead. Both admit they have no way of knowing.

The magnitude-7 quake struck Tuesday afternoon.

Some photos are coming out of the country but most photojournalists are just arriving and trying to find ways to transmit the photos. We will update the blog as more photos are available.

WARNING: This post contains graphic images of dead bodies and injured survivors.

A man covers his mouth as the stench dead bodies fills the area outside near a destroyed building on January 15, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti is trying to recover from a powerful 7.0-strong earthquake that struck and devastated the nation on January 12. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Two year old Redjeson Hausteen Claude reacts to his mother Daphnee Plaisin, after he is rescued from a collapsed home by Belgian and Spanish rescuers in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Light from the setting sun strikes the ruins of the National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Signs of tension and urgency were growing in Haiti on Thursday, two days after an earthquake reduced much of the capital to rubble. (Michael Appleton/The New York Times)

A woman uses bed sheets to contruct a makeshift tent in an encampment near the airport in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Signs of tension and urgency were growing in Haiti on Thursday, two days after an earthquake reduced much of the capital to rubble. (Michael Appleton/The New York Times)

A woman in Port-au-Prince weeps as she watches bodies being loaded onto a dumptruck for transportation to a mass grave outside the city on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Signs of tension and urgency were growing in Haiti on Thursday, two days after an earthquake reduced much of the capital to rubble. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

James Girly, 64, of the US speaks with a French military rescuers from the Securite Civile after he was brought out of a destroyed building of the Montana Hotel where he was trapped for 50 hours in Port-au-Prince on January 14, 2010. French rescuers pulled seven Americans and one Haitian survivor from the building. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

The Haitian National Penitentiary stands burnt and empty after an earthquake measuring 7 plus on the Richter scale rocked Port-au-Prince Haiti on January 12, 2009. The prison house more than 3,000 inmates who all escaped into the streets. The death toll in the Haiti quake could top 100,000 dead, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said. (LOGAN ABASSI/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S., French and Spanish rescue workers carry Sarla Chand, 65, of New Jersey, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after more than 50 hours being buried underneath the pile of rubble that was formerly the Montana Hotel. The hotel, which sits on a ridge, was flattened from the earthquake. She says she had been speaking to five other people trapped with her up until the moment she was rescued. Chand is a physician. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Carl Juste)

Earthquake survivors use water from a fountain to bathe in the central public garden of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. An earthquake measuring more than 7 on the Richter scale hit Haiti on Tuesday, leaving thousands dead and many displaced. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

The legs of an earthquake victim are seen lying in street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. An earthquake measuring more than 7 on the Richter scale hit Haiti on Tuesday, leaving thousands dead and many displaced. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

A man surveys hundreds of bodies of earthquake victims at the morgue in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People carry a body to a truck in Port au Prince on January 14, 2010, following the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12. Desperate Haitians awaited a global effort to find and treat survivors from the quake that left streets strewn with corpses and a death toll that may top 100,000. Hundreds of thousands of homeless, injured and traumatized victims spent a second night on the streets and sidewalks, transforming Port-au-Prince into a gigantic and under-equipped refugee camp. (THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images)

Bodies are unloaded from a hearse at a funeral home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Signs of tension and urgency were growing in Haiti on Thursday, two days after an earthquake reduced much of the capital to rubble. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

Injured people await treatment in a courtyard at a hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Signs of tension and urgency were growing in Haiti on Thursday, two days after an earthquake reduced much of the capital to rubble. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

Two women cried outside a destroyed building where their mother’s body remained buried, in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

Injured patients outside the St. Esprit Hospital in central Port-au-Prince wait in vain for treatment on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2010. Survivors strained desperately on Wednesday against the chunks of concrete that buried this city along with thousands of its residents, rich and poor, from shantytowns to the presidential palace, in the devastating earthquake that struck late Tuesday afternoon. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

A woman cried outside a destroyed building where her mother’s body remained buried, in Port-au-Prince, Thurday, Jan. 14, 2010. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

A girl received treatment for a broken leg in a courtyard on the grounds of the general hospital in downtown Port Au Prince, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Foreign aid workers trying to deliver supplies faced a logistical nightmare on Thursday. Since Tuesday’s earthquake, power was still out and telecommunications were rarely functioning. Most medical facilities have been severely damaged, if not leveled. Supplies of food and fresh water were dwindling. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

People gather around and search through the rubble of a church destroyed by the massive earthquake killing many people inside on January 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake killing possibly thousands. Numerous buildings were reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

People carry the body of a person pulled out of the rubble caused by the massive earthquake on January 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake killing possibly thousands. Numerous buildings were reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

People check on the identification of a body that was pulled out of the rubble caused by the massive earthquake on January 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake killing possibly thousands. Numerous buildings were reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

People grieve together after a relative was killed in the massive earthquake on January 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake killing possibly thousands. Numerous buildings were reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A man carries a coffin to be used to bury a body found in the debris from the massive earthquake on January 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake killing possibly thousands. Numerous buildings were reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Roselyn Joseph cries over the body of her daughter Emanuela Aminise after she was killed in the massive earthquake on January 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake killing possibly thousands. Numerous buildings were reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

An unidentified female earthquake victim is transported by pick-up truck to the airport on January 13, 2010 in Port-Au-Prince from where she will be evacuated for treatment in another country, one day after a cataclysmic earthquake struck Haiti. More than 100,000 people are feared dead. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010, and released by the Philippine Mission to the United Nations, members of the 10th Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent serving with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) help in search and rescue efforts at the collapsed U.N. headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where a number of staff members and peacekeepers, including three from the Philippines, remain trapped more than a day after a powerful earthquake struck the capital city. (AP Photo/United Nations, Marco Dormino)

A destroyed building is seen on January 13, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake that may have killed thousands. US President Barack Obama ordered a swift and aggressive US rescue effort, while the European Union activated its crisis systems and the Red Cross and United Nations unlocked emergency funds and supplies for the destitute nation. Much of Port-au-Prince was reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12 but the airport was operational, opening the way for international relief aid to be ferried in by air as well as by sea. (Photo by Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images)

A woman walks past bodies laid out on a sidewalk in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

Local residents crowd a devastated street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

Local residents look at the damaged National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

A injured child receives medical treatment after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. The 7.0 magnitude quake rocked Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and leaving the poor Caribbean nation appealing for international help. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

An injured man is transported to safety in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)

People sit at a park a day after the destructive earthquake in downtown Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People look at bodies covered in blankets along the road among destruction from the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A woman is carried in a chair among destruction from the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People search for survivors under the rubble of a collapse building the day after an earthquake†hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

A UN car is covered in rubble the day after an earthquake†hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

An injured girl lies on the side of the road as she is attended to the day after an earthquake†hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

People cross the hands of an earthquake victim in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The powerful earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

A person ties a dead woman’s feet together as she is attended to on the side of a road the day after an earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

An injured child sits on the sidewalk†in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The powerful earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

A woman stands in the rubble of her home the day after an earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Rescuers work to free trapped survivors and find dead victims in a four story building that collapsed in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Debris lays in the street after an earthquake along the Delmas road in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the area, rocked Haiti on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jorge Cruz)

People walk and sit in the street after an earthquake struck Port au Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the area, rocked Haiti on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Cris Bierrenbach)

A woman lies on the ground as others stand outside a market that collapsed after a powerful earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Cris Bierrenbach)

People gather in the street after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the area, rocked Haiti on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jorge Cruz)

People gather in the street after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the area, rocked Haiti on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jorge Cruz)

Bodies of earthquake victims lay on a street†in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

Men remove the battered body of a young woman from the rubble, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Tuesday’s quake left a landscape of collapsed buildings _ hospitals, schools, churches, ramshackle homes, even the gleaming national palace _ the rubble sending up a white cloud that shrouded the entire capital. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Patrick Farrell)

Girls cry as a little girl is removed from the rubble, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, in Port-AU-Prince, Haiti. Tuesday’s quake left a landscape of collapsed buildings _ hospitals, schools, churches, ramshackle homes, even the gleaming national palace _ the rubble sending up a white cloud that shrouded the entire capital. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Patrick Farrell)

People look at earthquake victims lying on the street in the aftermath of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

A body lies among the rubble of a damaged building in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The powerful earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A injured man is carried on a push cart by friends among destruction from the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday flattened the president’s palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A man walks past a body lying on a street in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, the day after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In this photo released by the United Nations, buildings affected by an earthquake lay in ruins in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday. (AP Photo/United Nations, Logan Abassi)

People pass by the remains of a six-story communication building on January 13, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake that may have killed thousands. US President Barack Obama ordered a swift and aggressive US rescue effort, while the European Union activated its crisis systems and the Red Cross and United Nations unlocked emergency funds and supplies for the destitute nation. Much of Port-au-Prince was reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12 but the airport was operational, opening the way for international relief aid to be ferried in by air as well as by sea. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images)

A photo released on January 14, 2010 from the UN Minustah mission showing the damage done to the Presidential palace in Port-au-Prince following a devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010. UN and aid agencies warned on January 14, 2010 that they faced a “major logistic challenge” in getting essential relief to survivors of Haiti’s deadly earthquake. (LOGAN ABASSI/AFP/Getty Images)

Local residents wander amidst the ruins of their hometown hours after the earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. More than 100,000 people were feared dead in Haiti Wednesday after a calamitous earthquake razed homes, hotels, and hospitals, leaving the capital in ruins and bodies strewn in the streets. With thousands of people missing, dazed survivors in torn clothes wandered through the rubble as more than 30 aftershocks rocked the ramshackle capital, where more than two million people live, most in the grip of poverty. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

Local residents wander amidst the ruins of their hometown hours after the earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. More than 100,000 people were feared dead in Haiti Wednesday after a calamitous earthquake razed homes, hotels, and hospitals, leaving the capital in ruins and bodies strewn in the streets. With thousands of people missing, dazed survivors in torn clothes wandered through the rubble as more than 30 aftershocks rocked the ramshackle capital, where more than two million people live, most in the grip of poverty. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

A Haitian man rides his bicycle past the rumble of a destroyed church caused by a massive earthquake in Port-au-Prince on January 13, 2010. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after a powerful earthquake that may have killed thousands. US President Barack Obama ordered a swift and aggressive US rescue effort, while the European Union activated its crisis systems and the Red Cross and United Nations unlocked emergency funds and supplies for the destitute nation. Much of Port-au-Prince was reduced to rubble by the 7.0-strong quake on January 12 but the airport was operational, opening the way for international relief aid to be ferried in by air as well as by sea. (ERIKA SANTELICES/AFP/Getty Images)

A man helped an injured person after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. One of the strongest earthquakes recorded on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola struck Haiti late Tuesday afternoon near Port-au-Prince, the capital, trapping people under collapsed buildings and raising fears of large numbers of casualties in the hemisphere’s poorest country. (Tequila Minsky/The New York Times)

A young woman reaches out to adjust a blanket covering a body in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake. (Tequila Minsky/The New York Times)

Injured people sit along Delmas road the day after an earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jorge Cruz)

In this photo released by the United Nations, earthquake survivors’ tents are seen between buildings in Port au Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday. (AP Photo/United Nations, Logan Abassi)

A Haitian woman is covered in rubble on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)

A destroyed building is seen on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)

Haitians walk past damaged buildings on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)

A Haitian woman is helped after being trapped in rubble on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince following a huge earthquake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)

A Haitian woman is helped from the rubble of a damaged building on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)

A body lies amid rubble on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT. (DAVID MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)