Port-au-Prince , Haiti ( CNN ) -- Haiti 's capital awoke to increasing desperation Thursday morning , a day and a half after a devastating earthquake , with covered bodies piling up along streets and modern aspects of life , such as electricity , mostly missing . The streets of Port-au-Prince resembled grainy black-and-white newsreels from World War II that showed the rubble of bombed-out houses in Berlin and London . The devastation was wide and often horrific . A one-hour drive from the airport to a walled-in hotel where the CNN contingent is staying revealed the widespread destruction from Tuesday 's 7.0-magnitude earthquake . Flattened and severely damaged houses were found on every block , and the streets were choked with pedestrians and residents . They set up overnight camps and slept by the thousands in dark and crowded parks and on sidewalks , for fear of being inside if another powerful quake hit . Numerous aftershocks have rattled the capital . Sporadic gunfire was heard Wednesday night outside the hotel where CNN is lodged . Sirens could be heard at times , but the predominant sounds in the pre-dawn darkness were the shouts and screams from the thousands of people who spent the night in a dark park across the street . A rooster 's crowing could sometimes be heard above the din . After electricity in the hotel was shut off at 1 a.m. , CNN technicians worked on satellite equipment by flashlight . The hotel resembles a compound , with razor wire topping eight-foot walls and a gated parking lot , guarded by a man wielding an old shotgun . And although the hotel 's residents seemed safe , and street violence had not been seen , there was a feeling of apprehension . As dawn broke , residents wandered slowly through the streets , their destination unknown in a city with seemingly nowhere to go . Still , there were glimmers of hope that the situation was inching toward improvement . The airport , damaged by the quake , began to come back to life Wednesday . The Aeroport International Toussaint Louverture had been closed since the quake struck . But by Wednesday afternoon , the first small-plane commercial flights started to arrive . The airport picked up energy and vitality as planes carrying supplies and ferrying search-and-rescue squads began filling the tarmac . Francklin Pierre , manager for Haiti 's Copa Airlines , was in his airport office on Tuesday , sending an e-mail to a friend in Trinidad and Tobago , when he felt the tremor just before 5 p.m . He stood up and stumbled out of his office but could not go far because the building was shaking so hard . `` It was an eternity for me , '' he said . `` That building was shaking like a paper . '' His mother and daughter survived , Pierre said , but his father is missing . `` We are all still looking for my father , '' he said . `` We ca n't reach him . We do n't know where he is . '' Lionel Isaac , director of the airport authority , said engineers will examine the structural damage Thursday to see if the terminal can be opened again . The runway and the electricity are sound , he said . If the terminal can not be opened any time soon , Isaac said , an American Airlines cargo building may be used as temporary terminal . He hopes to have 30-seat commercial airplanes flying into the airport within the next few days . Large military cargo aircraft were landing routinely and often Wednesday afternoon . Several U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force planes stood on the tarmac , their engines running the whole time . One took on a load of passengers and left . International help also started to arrive . Thirty-five members of the Icelandic Search and Rescue Team arrived aboard a large jet . `` They will stay here for as long as it takes , '' said Thorbjorn Johnsson , a counselor from the Icelandic Foreign Ministry who accompanied the team . `` We offered to help and Haiti accepted . '' A Canadian military squad also arrived to drop off supplies and a reconnaissance squad , in preparation for a disaster response team scheduled to arrive Thursday aboard a C-17 cargo plane with two helicopters on board . The Canadian crew planned to leave Wednesday night to make room for other planes on the crowded tarmac . `` Once I 've dropped that off , I 'm just taking up room , '' said Capt . Wayne Freeland , the plane 's pilot . `` I 've got to make room for everyone else . I 'm just a bus driver , my friend . '' American Airlines , which has been flying into Port-Au-Prince for 40 years , has brought in 30,000 pounds of water and food and plans to bring in more Thursday , said Art Torno , the airline 's managing director for the Caribbean . As the sun climbed into the sky Thursday , the din from the park across the street from the hotel quieted , replaced by an occasional car horn and the chattering of residents speaking their rapid-fire French patois . A small crowd of young men gathered at a concrete wall that had toppled at a home next to the hotel . Stooped over , they busted the concrete blocks into smaller chunks , their purpose in doing so not readily apparent .
Bodies pile up in streets ; residents wander , apparently aimlessly , in rubble . Many Haitians sleeping outdoors for fear more tremors will collapse buildings . Comment: Airport runway and electricity are OK , officials say ; terminal being checked for damage .