PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a powerful earthquake flattened the president's palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. Officials feared hundreds of thousands may have perished but there was no firm count.

Death was everywhere in Port-au-Prince. Bodies of tiny children were piled next to schools. Corpses of women lay on the street with stunned expressions frozen on their faces as flies began to gather. Bodies of men were covered with plastic tarps or cotton sheets.

President Rene Preval said he believes thousands were killed in Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake, and the scope of the destruction prompted other officials to give even higher estimates. Leading Sen. Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, although he acknowledged that nobody really knows.

Obviously the US military is going to play a significant role in relief efforts. Right now there's talk of sending the aircraft carrier USS Vinson and an amphibious assault ship to the island.

The biggest issue will be fresh water as well as a large fleet of helicopters to ferry supplies, especially to hard to reach areas.

Given that reports are that most if not all hospitals are destroyed, I wouldn't be surprised to see the DoD move in the hospital ship USNS Comfort.

Once chilling note...some early estimates are that upwards of 500,000 people may be dead. That would represent 5% of the population.