communications future. always free and always local. it's our connection to our community it's our lifeline to the emergency information we need it's a free service that provides free entertainment. but one day soon, it could be taken away. there's a movement among special interest groups to limit free antenna tv and millions of americans who depend on it would lose out. let's tell congress to keep free antenna tv as part of our communications future. always free and always local. chaos and pandemonium not knowing what to do. and clinging to life. >> reporter: i talked to one woman who simply said where are the rescue teams, why haven't we seen any? and in reality there haven't been any. they just the simply can't get here. it's been such a difficult road for anyone to get here. and with the trouble with the infrastructure of this country, this tragedy of course has only mushroomed. >> a lot of roads are blocked. so even equipment that needs to get into house that's are built on steep inclines and mountains are going to have a lot of difficulty. a lot of search and rescue is going to need to be done by hand. >> reporter: we're now two blocks from the presidential palace, which has collapsed. there are probably 200,000 to 300,000 people in this area, spending their evening just walking around, gathering, eating food, whatever they can do to just keep themselves busy. they are so afraid, of course, of going indoors because of those continuous and consistent aftershocks. in port-au-prince, haiti, art rascone, abc news. >> again, for anyone who would like to help out with the earthquake relief effort there's a list of aid organizations on our website. just go to abcnews.com. time now for your thursday forecast. it will be stormy in south texas with rain and flooding in houston, san antonio, and corpus krusty. showers in the western part of the state into new mexico. snow in the yoik mountains from central new mexico to montana. and some showers around the great lakes. >> 30s in chicago, indianapolis, and detroit. 30s also in the northeast. 57 in atlanta and 74 in miami. seattle climbs to 51. sacramento 61. and colorado springs 44. and when we return, the morning's other news stories. >> you're watching abc news' continuing coverage of the earthquake in haiti. whoo! awake again? concern over disease is rising in haiti about a day and a half now since that nation's devastating earthquake. fears are that the death toll from tuesday's disaster could rise to 100,000. the u.s. military and aid organizations are working to get relief operations running. in other news this morning, a pentagon report into the ft. hood shootings is expected to recommend the closer scrutiny of officers who may have become radicalized. the report, which is released later today, probes that attack, which was allegedly carried out by army psychiatrist major nidal hasan. the attack left 13 people dead. president obama and senior democratic lawmakers say they've made progress in reaching a final health care deal. it follows a marathon day of talks between the parties on wednesday. congressional negotiators return to the white house later today for further talks on the matter. meantime, as president obama gets ready to celebrate his one-year anniversary in office, he's admitting to "people" magazine that americans have the right to feel "let down" by the progress that he's made over the past year. the president says that he had hoped to bring the nation together by now. but he adds that if his health care bill does get passed that will be his proudest moment. now back to our top story. and as we mentioned earlier in the show, president obama is scheduled to make a statement about the haiti situation later this morning. >> millions there need the basic necessities of life, food, water, and shelter. >> but as bianna golodryga reports, no xwlaert how dire the circumstances 21st century technology is playing a role. >> reporter: thank god for facebook. an emphatic statement from the salvation army director. with the phone lines down the only way we could communicate with him was through a very shaky skype connection. >> in what ways has facebook been helpful? >> so many people are writing to say we support you, we're praying for you, we love you. >> reporter: we even caught him in the middle of an aftershock. >> we're really having some bad aftershocks. >> reporter: all the while, we stayed connected. surfing through social networking sites, we found messages from those begging for help. "i'm from haiti. my auntie got a building collapse on her and my dad was on a job there. can't find him." many desperately searching for missing loved ones. "i'm so sick right now. my dad and 'cause just phone ringing with no answer." and others reacting to the shock by posting their raw emotions. "just woke up to see another day. some people in haiti weren't fortunate enough to see another day." also on facebook, we chatted with toby banks, a ministry worker sheltering 20 orphans. facebook it turns out is her only mode of communication with the outside world. "at this moment we have no cell phone service in haiti. facebook was our only way to communicate today with our team." in fact, a message posted on her wall from doctors in switzerland informed her that help is on the way. she says it's amazing to see how everyone is coming together to help so quickly. and the man widely considered haiti's most famous musical export, wyclef jean, immediately turned to twitter as an appeal for financial aid and support. with 1.3 million followers. >> social media helping journalists as well report this important story. many of the initial images and stories that we heard came out on twitter and facebook. >> aid workers have known for a while this would be a good medium, and now we're finally seeing it in action. we'll be right back with it's ourto ourction community it's our lifeline to the emergency information we need it's a free service that provides free entertainment. but one day soon, it could be taken away. there's a movement among special interest groups to limit free antenna tv and millions of americans who depend on it would lose out. let's tell congress to keep free antenna tv as part of our communications future. always free and always local. welcome back welcome back. well, it has been a harrowing day and a half in haiti, to say the least. and there's little reason to think that the safe there will vastly improve anytime soon. >> the reality is that this hemisphere's poorest nation is more helpless right now than ever before. even so our kate snow has some remarkable stories of survival. >> we need more people down here! >> reporter: the quake struck right before sundown on tuesday, 7.0 on the richter scale, almost directly under the haitian kacht of port-au-prince. it hit without warning and with devastating force. >> how many are alive? >> three alive. >> three alive. >> reporter: reporter christine webb was in haiti on a church retreat. >> and where the earth actually split it was unreal. >> reporter: bob popp works for the salvation army. >> if it wasn't bad enough for the earthquake, now they're burning. people are losing everything they have and it's so sad. >> reporter: cindy mcmartin runs a seminary in port-au-prince funded by the cross world mission. >> it was like the floor of our house was rippling up and down. everything was falling off the walls. >> reporter: luis st. jermaine is a pastor at an orphanage. >> soon as the house start to shaky just run out. and when i run out i see my case was in panic. so within 15 minutes the whole city was in the street. >> reporter: when the quake was all over, the city of 2 million people was left in ruins. buildings toppled, the power out. and after the sunset the rescues began. the u.n. compound destroyed. in this building alone at least 16 people killed, 56 people injured. seven medevaced. and they expect that number to grow. we spoke with matt merrick of the american red cross via skype. >> it's extremely difficult to estimate the scale, the magnitude was just immense, the earthquake yesterday. and we spent all day and night in the street just trying to give assistance. >> it is a catastrophe. it is terrible. the access to port-au-prince now is impossible by car. >> reporter: around the city people began the painful process of trying to dig out. >> you are hearing the grief of people as they realize they've lost or they can't find their children. but then again you suddenly hear these cries come out, people who are rescuing other people from the rubble as someone comes out alive. >> reporter: their own medical facilities severely damaged, doctors without borders set up trauma centers in parking lots and on lawns, treating hundreds of patients, many with broken bones, many with burns from cooking gas containers that exploded during the earthquake. >> the best we can offer them at the moment is first aid care and stabilizati stabilization. now, the reality of what we're seeing is severe traumas. head wounds, crushed limbs. >> reporter: the red cross has been lehelping haitians for decades, but today their offices were in ruins. they improvised, tending to their own wounded as well as the communities. >> entire mountainsides of communities have come down and collapsed. >> reporter: outside the capital city cindy mcmartin and her husband, who run a small seminary of about 100 students-r on their own to deal with the tragedy. two of the buildings on their small campus collapsed, trapping several of their students. >> we still hope we can find them alive. but the chances are very slim. but we are still doing what we can to find them. >> reporter: there are stories of hope. 23-year-old american aid worker gillian thorp was buried in an avalanche of concrete and steel, trapped with a co-worker in the basement of their church charity during the earthquake. but she was very much alive. somehow she managed to call her husband frank, 100 miles away. he jumped into his car and drove as fast as he could, arrived just in time to see gillian's hand barely sticking out of the rubble. he described what he saw to cbs. >> i jumped into the hole, and i was able to see her wave her hand. i couldn't see her whole body. she was just waving. and i could hear her voice. and there was -- i mean, i couldn't hold it together. but all she was sake is just hold it together, hold it together. just get me out of here. >> reporter: frank started digging by hand, brick by brick. an hour later he pulled gillian free, bruised and battered but safe. back at the seminary romel, a 30-year-old student at the school, was also pulled out alive and unharmed. >> it was literally a miracle. >> reporter: but still with the entire school still afraid of aftershocks they flee into the school's courtyard at any sign of a tremor. they're anticipating days and nights without food and water. >> these people have broken bones. it's gruesome, it's horrible. and we have run out of all our medical supplies up here. so what we're doing right now is just washing wounds and giving tylenol and trying to do the best we can. >> reporter: i'm kate snow on the haiti-dominican republic border. and when we come back, the thursday morning papers. as you imagine, the coverage of this tragedy reverberating across the globe. >> of course you're watching a special edition of "world news now." we're talking about the quake's aftermath and pictures, and the headlines we'll share with you after this break. stay with us. there is a medicare benefit that may qualify you for a new power chair or scooter at little to no cost to you. stay tuned for this important medicare benefit information and free scooter guarantee. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. why should you call the scooter store today? because their mobility experts are also medicare experts. and 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immigrant population in south florida. for many this is really their only lifeline to what's going on with their loved ones in haiti. i actually went on the website, and a portion of their website is actually in creole, which i thought was interesting and certainly very helpful for people who want to read about this in their native language. the headline says it all. "desperation. thousands feared dead. families wait and worry." and the image here on the front page i think is one of the more lasting images that i've seen. rescue worker holding the body of a little girl. the article talks about a boarding school that collapsed in one of the blocks in port-au-prince and piles of bodies stacked up next to the school and the bodies were crushed beyond recognition but they were all wearing school outfits. and so you knew that these were students. you knew that that was a school. so this in my mind is one of the more lasting images from this tragedy. >> so many images with people covered in that rubble. but of course one of the things we've heard so much about is really about the lack of structure to a lot of the buildings. and when you're hearing stories about why people are not getting into port-au-prince, all you have to do is take a look at the cover of the "chicago sun-times" and you can see there, i mean, this is a place that prior to this earthquake had 60% of buildings that they deemed unsafe. and right now they're saying one of the biggest problems is just getting through the streets. there's a story right now circulating about a red cross worker who said he was more or less going through the streets, anyone that was injured, putting them on the of his truck. haid the hardest reality was tov tho heavily congested streets he had gone less than one mile. so we see these makeshift triages that are in parking lots and areas of hotels, things like, that it's understandable because when there's total chaos there's really nowhere for these emergency -- all this emergency aid to go. it's almost deadlock city right now. >> and when we're talking about repeated aftershocks since the initial earthquake and rock slides that result from that, we're talking about roads that may be passable now -- >> right. >> -- but that later that day perhaps not. another florida newspaper, the "st. petersburg times" headline. 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[male announcer] this is how america supports our troops. the uso depends on the generosity of the american people, people just like you. to find out more about how you can help visit our website at uso dot org. the uso until every one comes home. >> this morning on "world news now" -- haiti in ruins. millions homeless, thousands dead. few people being found alive. >> it is a catastrophe. it is terrible. >> throughout the country people are hurt and hungry. to the rescue. the u.s. military is mobilizing with crews on the ground, ships on the way, and marines at the ready. and survivor stories. >> i jumped into the hole, and i was able to see her wave her hand. >> a husband who saved his wife digging brick by brick. amazing tales of a disaster of enormous scope on this thursday january 14th. so many amazing tales. coupled with so many amazing tales, rather, coupled with so many stories that are really unbelievable when it comes to what this nation is fighting against right now. >> yeah, the full scope of this disaster starting to come to light. the pleas for help only growing louder. >> we'll talk much about it this morning. thanks for being with us. i'm vinita nair. >> and eric horng. jeremy hubbard is on assignment. we begin with the very latest from haiti. thousands of families faced another night of sleeping outside because they have nowhere else to go. >> the red cross says it has run out of supplies and many injured are being turned away from the hospital. but cargo planes filled with relief supplies are able to land at the airport. >> there are fears that the death toll could top 100,000. a public health crisis is looming because of the dead bodies which line the streets. >> president obama met with top advisers on the u.s. response to the catastrophe last night in the situation room. mr. obama is expected to make a statement about the crisis later this morning at 10:00 eastern. >> and the president's top diplomat, secretary of state hillary clinton, is cutting short her trip to the asian pacific region and returning to washington to oversee the u.s. response. >> "good morning america's" robin roberts has just arrived in port-au-prince. >> sh