I have seen suffering; poverty, war, natural disasters. And I can say with certainty, that no video or photo can capture the emotion of standing in the middle of senseless destruction.

Unfortunately, we here in eastern Iowa have a powerful connection to these images. Looking through photos from Haiti today, I could feel again the helplessness I felt driving into Parkersburg less than an hour after a tornado ripped the town apart. And I could feel the despair I felt as I watched the flood water slowly rise and fall in my community. While the images from Haiti may not fully capture the panic and devastation, too many of us here in Iowa can fill in the emotions from our own experiences.

The massive death toll and extreme poverty, however, set this disaster apart. American reporters landing in Haiti say the streets are literally littered with bodies. Click here to see CNN’s Twitter list of reporters in Haiti.

The American Red Cross announced a text to donate campaign on their Web site, saying the effort is backed by the U.S. State Department. You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

And while I’m sure many other important relief funds will be created in the near future, the FBI has also issued a fraud alert, based on e-mail and online relief scams discovered during previous natural disasters.

The people of Haiti, the relief workers from around the world and the reporters on the scene are all in my thoughts and prayers.

Posted under Weather, Web/Tech