 The American Red Cross pledged US $500,000 to help the country, and would send out people to assess damage. "As with most earthquakes, we expect to see immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support," it said yesterday evening in a statement. A number of other nations, including the UK and Venezuela, are also planning to send aid. A reporter for the Al Jazeera news agency, however, said there might be difficulties delivering aid. "We are about 300km from the epicentre of the earthquake, and we know that the UN agencies and the humanitarian groups here are trying to get together some kind of strategy to get aid over to Haiti. We know that there are trucks loaded with supplies ready to go but the difficulty is that no-one really knows how to get that aid to the people [effectively]." This quake is said to have been the strongest in Haiti in over two hundred years; the last time an earthquake of comparable magnitude was recorded was in 1770. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Recent development efforts have suffered severe setbacks because of political violence, crime, corruption and natural disasters. Seventy percent of the population lives on the equivalent of less than US$ 2 per day.
<clarity>  The American Red Cross pledged US $500,000 to help the country, and would send out people to assess damage. "As with most earthquakes, we expect to see immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support," it said yesterday evening in a statement. A number of other nations, including the UK and Venezuela, are also planning to send aid. A reporter for the Al Jazeera news agency, however, said there might be difficulties delivering aid. "We are about 300km from the epicentre of the earthquake, and we know that the UN agencies and the humanitarian groups here are trying to get together some kind of strategy to get aid over to Haiti. We know that there are trucks loaded with supplies ready to go but the difficulty is that no-one really knows how to get that aid to the people [effectively]." This quake is said to have been the strongest in Haiti in over two hundred years; the last time an earthquake of comparable magnitude was recorded was in 1770. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Recent development efforts have suffered severe setbacks because of political violence, crime, corruption and natural disasters. Seventy percent of the population lives on the equivalent of less than US$ 2 per day.
 The American Red Cross pledged US $500,000 to help the country, and would send out people to assess damage. "As with most earthquakes, we expect to see immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support," it said yesterday evening in a statement. A number of other nations, including the UK and Venezuela, are also planning to send aid. A reporter for the news agency, however, said there might be difficulties delivering aid. "We are about 300km from the epicentre of the earthquake, and we know that the UN agencies and the humanitarian groups here are trying to get together some kind of strategy to get aid over to Haiti. We know that there are trucks loaded with supplies ready to go but the difficulty is that no-one really knows how to get that aid to the people [effectively]." This quake is said to have been the strongest in Haiti in over two hundred years; the last time an earthquake of comparable magnitude was recorded was in 1770. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Recent development efforts have suffered severe setbacks because of political violence, crime, corruption and natural disasters. Seventy percent of the population lives on the equivalent of less than US$ 2 per day.