Ms. CHARLES: The government is very stable. I mean I have to tell you, you know, I've been reporting on this country for years now and in the last couple of years, you know, yes, there was a problem with gangs, but those, you know, they were disarmed and in the last two or three years, the country has been enjoying relative stability.

I just recently wrote a story about how it was going to get its first international hotel franchise in a decade because investors were starting to feel confident, both Haitians and non-Haitians alike. They were preparing to go to elections on February 28th, prior to that everybody was warming up for Carnival. There's supposed to be a presidential election, you know, in November. Now I think that the focus is just going to really shift to how do you dig yourself up from underneath this rubble?

AMOS: Jacqueline Charles of the The Miami Herald, thanks very much for talking to us.

Ms. CHARLES: Thank you.

AMOS: I know you're heading to Haiti today, yourself, so stay safe.

Ms. CHARLES: All right. Thank you.

INSKEEP: And rather than building hotels, Haitians now have to focus on recovering victims from buildings that collapsed yesterday. Most people are having to dig through the rubble by hand to try to find family or friends. An Associated Press videographer in Port-Au-Prince says a hospital is wrecked.

AMOS: People are standing by to rush in aid from the United States and Mexico, but last night, the Port-Au-Prince Airport remained closed. It'll take time simply to know the extent of the damage and even longer to start to recover.

INSKEEP: And as darkness began to fall last night, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official took a moment to look up from the wreckage of a Haitian city. He said the sky was gray with dust.

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