Haitians in Bermuda last night spoke of their anguish at the devastation of their earthquake-hit island and begged for help.

The 7.0-magnitude quake hit on Tuesday evening and CNN is reporting that hundreds of thousands of Haitians are feared dead. It is the worst earthquake to hit Haiti for more than two centuries and had its epicentre ten miles from the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince, which is said to be destroyed.

About three million people — one-third of Haiti's population — were directly affected by the quake, the Red Cross estimated.

Frigga Simmons grew up in Haiti but has lived in Bermuda for more than two decades and is married to a Bermudian.

Her brother still lives in Haiti, about 25 miles from Port-au-Prince, and she has not been able to contact him since the disaster.

"When I spoke to my cousins, they hadn't heard anything. My aunt just flew down. She hasn't been able to get in contact. My other cousin in Florida said it's ironic how the old-fashion communication is helping. Through radios they're able to get some news. Our hometown hasn't been affected.

"The quake was so high off the Richter scale so 25 miles is not so far. I heard that on the news Cuba felt the shake. We haven't heard anything. We haven't been able to contact anyone. It's kind of heart wrenching not knowing what's going on.

"It's one of those situations where you say no news is good news, but no news is not good news. We know that the devastation is going to be insurmountable. The census is not accurate. The number of deaths is probably double or triple the number they give. We don't know how many people are buried alive.

"Haiti is a very mountainous country and in the last few decades, with all the civil wars that we have had and the poverty itself, people have relied on drastic measures to survive. Our mountains have nothing to stop landslides. They cut down trees.

"With such a shake, there's nothing to protect the mountains. We're really in the Lord's hands at this point. It's just the worst catastrophe I have ever imagined."

Bermudian Phillip Rego has an orphanage in Haiti and, while it is 40 miles from the capital, he hasn't been able to get in contact with anyone and is hoping and praying that the children are OK.

Mr. Rego sent four boys from the Eden Garden Orphanage into Port-au-Prince to get medical attention and doesn't know if they made it back safely.

"I still can't get ahold of them. I'm trying to see if I can set up a fund for medical reasons. I can wire money down there. The most important thing is the medicine. If we have volunteers it would be nice. I'd like to appeal to Bermuda if they would come together.

"If the airport opens and it's available I would go. You have to go through the Dominican Republic but it's not clear if we can land. And we have to drive but the roads aren't cleared. I am trying to talk to people about putting together a team – a good qualified nurse, a doctor. If they have an interest to go we have a clinic they can go to."

Last night Premier Ewart Brown said Public Safety Minister David Burch had met with the Governor and the Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Regiment to "identify volunteers for a possible humanitarian mission to Haiti".

"When it is clearer what help we can give as a community in the days and weeks ahead I will be asking you to respond with Bermuda's usual generosity. We expect that we may be able to offer help with shelter, food, clothing and medical supplies along with financial donations."

Dr. Brown also urged the public to donate via the Bermuda Red Cross and Wyclef Jean's foundation Yele Haiti (see panel for details.)

Debbie Rigaud, a Haitian-American author living in Bermuda hasn't heard anything from her family members and said: "My father has family and I'm actually grateful because he was going to go to Haiti on Friday.

"He hasn't had any success. We don't know anything at this point. My family is from Port-au-Prince. A lot of them, most of them, are in the States now but there are people still there that we're trying to contact.

"He [my father] still wants to go on Friday. It's devastating and it's sad because in recent years everything's been really calm after the devastation of the hurricanes and the flooding and the political instability.

"My father's been going back and forth. For this to happen now is just heartbreaking. I just appeal to people to help out any way that they can."