MANHATTAN — As the death toll from the devastating Haiti earthquake rises into the hundreds of thousands, New Yorkers continued to frantically wait for word from loved ones Thursday.
Officials fear the 7.0 earthquake, which shook the Caribbean island Tuesday night, could have killed as many as half of million people after buildings were leveled and communications cut off almost completely.
Adrien Chenet, the father of five children currently in Haiti, sat in the Haitian consulate's waiting room in Midtown East on Wednesday dialing and redialing the numbers of his children, aged 15 to 25, with no luck.
At one point, someone picked up his 25-year-old daughter's cell phone, but it was a voice he didn't recognize. Then his phone card ran out of minutes and the phone went dead.
He said he felt powerless and couldn't decide whether to return home to search.
"I want to know what's going on down there first," he said.
There are more than 125,000 Haitian-Americans living in New York, bringing the tragedy very close to home, according to local officials.
"Port-Au-Prince is flattened. The hospitals are gone...We need the help of the international community," said Felix Augustin, Haitian consul general in New York.
The Haitian government estimates that the death toll is in the hundred of thousands and Haitian President Rene Preval told CNN that Haiti lacks the capacity to hospitalize all of the quake victims. Preval has asked for medical aid from other nations.
Several government buildings were destroyed, including the ministries of foreign affairs, commerce and industry.
Augustin said his office is arranging to fly dozens of New York area doctors to Haiti by Saturday. Drop off locations for relief supplies are being set up throughout the city and officials are trying to figure out how to get these supplies to Haiti.
Water is the most needed resource, they said.
Like most of the Haitians living in New York, Augustin said he had to dial numbers of his family and co-workers in Haiti dozens of times before getting through. He reached government officials in the capital, which is without power, and concluded that "CNN has more information" than they did.
To reach loved ones in Haiti, he said, "the only thing I know is you have to call and call and call again."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said anyone wishing to contribute to relief efforts through the city can do so by calling 311.
"New York City and Haiti have long held a special, close relationship with each other," Bloomberg said in a statement.
“New York City stands ready to do all we can to help Haiti, as we have in the past. And on behalf of 8.4 million New Yorkers, nou ave'w — we are with you."
At the Haitian Consulate, distraught workers cried in the hallways while officials, clergy and medical workers gathered to organize relief efforts, including a donation network.
"What we need now is water, unperishable food and non-prescription medicine like skin lotion, diarrhea medicine and antacid," said the Rev. Daniel Ulysse, a minister at The French Speaking Baptist Church in Brooklyn. "We're organizing dropoff places for these things."
Ulysse, an interpeter for the U.S. Coast Guard, was going to catch a t Jet Blue flight to Haiti as part of a relief mission organized by the Haitian Consulate.
Ulysse, who grew up in Port-Au-Prince, was also hoping to get into contact with his five siblings in nearby in Cap Haitien. One brother works for the finance ministry and another at a hospital.
"But I'm going there as a chaplain. My job is to be there, and offer help. "I have to be there for the people. I have to be able to provide the aid they need."
While he waited at the consulate offices on Wednesday, he tried to comfort frantic employees and other Haitian Americans who showed up looking for information.
At a prayer vigil Wednesday night outside the Haitian consulate, several politicians gathered with distraught Haitian New Yorkers.
The earthquake hit near Port-au-Prince at roughly 5 p.m. Tueday and is believed to be the strongest quake to strike Haiti in centuries. Two aftershocks, registering at 5.9 and 5.5, followed.
