A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday January 12, 2010. The earthquake was powerful 7.0 magnitude that rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage. Haiti's eqrthquake is inflicting new misery on the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

Several witnesses have reported heavy damage and bodies in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where concrete-block homes line the steep hillsides leading inland from the waterfront.

No estimate of the dead and wounded was given Tuesday evening, but the U.S. State Department had been told to expect "serious loss of life," spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.