There are news stories that affect us. And then there are the stories that overwhelm us, boring into every fiber, and taking over our emotions.
This 7.0 earthquake has caused so much destruction and death and calamity. And in a country that is already the poorest of the poor.
Making the situation worse is that getting aid into the Caribbean nation is difficult if not impossible, at least so far. The airport is open, but the control tower doesn't work. Getting in without colliding with another plane is a feat.
The situation on the streets is, according to people there, simply horrible. How many are dead? 100,000? More? We simply don't know. But we will.
We're following what's happening in Haiti. Our N.J. Burkett is in country for us tonight at 11, and our Marcus Solis is in neighboring Santo Domingo.
Burkett's photographer, Mike Thorne, is also blogging about what he sees there, and you can see his entries at our website, by CLICKING HERE. The use of so-called "social media" has come of age during this crisis - and for everyone who pooh-poohs their kids' addiction to places like Facebook, the way these sites have been used has been extraordinary. The only pictures that came in at first were from Twitter and Facebook and text messages.
A definitive transformation for social networking - in the middle of tragedy.
And what a remarkable reminder - the whole catastrophe - about what's important and just how fragile we all are. 24 hours ago, we were talking about Conan O'Brien and Gov. David Paterson's son picked up by cops allegedly for a dice game on the street and the discovery of an unauthorized debit card. Sheesh.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Scott Clark with the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho and me, tonight at 11.
BILL RITTER
