( CNN ) -- With phone lines down and communication cut , Haitians living in America are `` sick with worry '' and scrambling for information about loved ones who experienced Tuesday 's 7.0 earthquake on the island nation . `` At this point it looks like it 's worse than we all imagined and we still do n't know specifics because of the down power lines , '' Gepsi Metellus said Wednesday . She is the executive director of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in Miami , Florida , which provides services to Haitians in South Florida ranging from help with taxes to how to navigate the American school system . `` We are assuming there are a lot more casualties than we might have initially thought , '' she said . Metellus said she still has n't heard from her mother , who splits her time between Haiti -- she lives in Pétionville , a suburb of Port-au-Prince -- and Miami . Her mother flew from Miami to Haiti on Friday . `` She 's in her 70s . I 'm very concerned . '' Metellus is also trying to find out how the center can best help people in Haiti , but without information , that 's difficult to ascertain at the moment . `` There are people who want to drop off medicine and food and water at the center , but we do n't even know if that 's what 's needed , much less if we will be able to get those supplies to the island . '' Are you looking for loved ones in Haiti ? Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere . Plagued with `` political violence for most of its history , '' according to the CIA World Factbook , the Caribbean island nation has suffered from colonialism , coups and corruption since becoming the first black republic in 1804 . Are you there ? Submit an iReport . More than half of the country lives in `` abject poverty . '' The nation imports more than four times the goods it exports and about two-thirds of the labor force lacks formal jobs , the CIA reports . There are 45,000 Americans living in Haiti , and the U.S. Embassy , as of Wednesday , has been able to reach only 40 of them , according to a release from the U.S. State Department . Metellus said the Haitian community in South Florida numbers from 250,000 to 500,000 people . `` The basic infrastructure we 're accustomed to here is nonexistent [ in Haiti ] . To assess the damage is going to be a momentous undertaking . '' Complete coverage of the earthquake . Disease is rampant in Haiti , and it 's still common for children to die from drinking and washing in fecal contaminated water . UNICEF estimates that 70 percent of Haitians do not have access to `` safe drinking water and adequate sanitation . '' Nyvrose Fleurent of Brooklyn , New York , works for the community outreach group Haitian American United Progress and said most Haitian immigrants in the United States have family still on the island . They often financially support family members who are n't able to leave , she said . Read about Haiti donations contributed through Twitter . Fleurent said this Tuesday while watching the news . Earlier in the morning she had hugged her brother goodbye before he flew to the Port-au-Prince airport in Haiti . Fleurent , 38 , remains hopeful her family will be unharmed . Her brother and cousins reside in Cap-Haïtien , in the north , on the opposite side of the country from Port-au-Prince , the city closest to the earthquake 's epicenter . Even so , she worried about the impact the quake will have on her struggling home country . `` The people who live there can barely make it , '' Fleurent said . `` They ca n't even eat and get money for their basic needs , so this is going to be a big blow for them . I do n't know where Haiti is going to be in the future . It 's already so bad . '' Harley Etienne , a Georgia Institute of Technology professor of public policy , fretted Wednesday about his uncle , cousins and his best friend 's mother who live in a suburb of Port-au-Prince . `` It 's all making my family here [ in the U.S. ] very nervous and scared , '' he said . `` My uncle lives on a hill so it 's quite upsetting . He lives in the same house that my father and his six brothers and sisters grew up in . '' `` All we can do is wait and hope , '' he said . The State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti : 1-888-407-4747 . CNN 's Jessica Ravitz , Stephanie Chen , Ashley Fantz and John Blake contributed to this report .
Notes : State - line for those with information about loved ones : 1 - 888 - 407 - 4747 . With phone lines down , Haitians in Miami fret about loved ones on island . ` ` It looks like it 's worse than we all thought , '' Haitian in Miami says . Haiti is most impoverished country in Western Hemisphere , plagued by violence .