Obviously at this point any speculation about the death toll in the Haitian earthquake is just that, speculation. But reports from the Haitian government are talking about hundreds of thousands of deaths. In the past speculation about tolls this high have often turned out to be overstated but in this case given that the quake shattered a city of several million people there is a good chance that they numbers could be accurate.

In any case the disaster is clearly one of epic proportions and it is one that will require many months or years for the people to recover.

If you want to help CNN has a list of on site relief agencies you can contribute to.

UPDATE: GO HERE for some videos that show the aftermath and what you can do to help.