Port-au-Prince , Haiti ( CNN ) -- Raymond Thomas is a jolly man who laughs easily and likes to say `` Forget it '' a lot . He 'd like to forget the devastation wrought at the Port-au-Prince harbor where his fleet of trucks used to pick up cargo . Tuesday 's 7.0-magnitude earthquake sent a quarter-mile pier crumbling into the sea along with two of his trucks . The few workers who went into the water swam to safety , Thomas said , but the port remains shut down , and desperately needed aid can not be unloaded quickly . `` Now we 're just starving to death , '' he said , worried that the airport and smaller harbors can not handle the necessary volume of relief supplies . `` That was the whole country right there , '' he added , pointing at two toppled cranes on the remains of the pier that stand out against the clear-blue sky . Thomas owns Raymond and Sons Trucking , a fleet of 35 trucks that haul cargo from the port . The company employed about 50 employees , all of them now out of work . `` I 'm out , '' Thomas said . The port wo n't be back for a while . Roads have been split apart and buckled , fences have fallen over . `` Oh , forget it , '' Thomas said . `` Forget it . It might take a year to rebuild it . Forget it . '' Yet he feels fortunate because although his home was destroyed and his business is shattered , no one in his family died in the quake . Asked what happened , he demurs with a hearty laugh . `` Forget it , '' he says . `` I do n't want to talk about it . '' He then relents , calling his family 's survival `` a miracle . '' His wife was outside their house and he was driving home in his red 1995 Honda CRV sport utility vehicle . `` I felt like the whole car was going to take off like an airplane , '' he said , laughing . He was n't wearing a seat belt , he admits . `` This is Haiti . In Miami , I wear a seat belt . '' Another laugh . Thomas ' 40-year-old daughter , Marjorie , and her 15-month-old son had just left earlier that afternoon to return to her home in Fort Lauderdale , Florida . Asked if it was a miracle that she missed the quake by such a short time , he laughs again , saying , `` You bet your sweet heart . '' On Friday , he was wearing a bullet-proof vest after someone tried to rob him the day before . Someone wanted to take his cell phone he said , and the port is near the roughest part of town . For now , Thomas and his wife are sleeping in a tent . And for now , also , his mind is on the port . He 's not alone . Tug boat owner Roger Rouzier also seem a dim future without the port . `` We can not receive the help by plane , '' Rouzier said Friday . `` We need to receive help by boat . '' Rouzier estimates that before the earthquake , more than 70 ships each unloaded about 8,000 tons of material every month . `` I personally unload three or four a day , '' he said . `` The whole country depends on this port . If we 're going to save people , we have to do it by boat . '' Without the port , Thomas sees serious consequences for Haiti , one of the poorest nations on Earth . `` We 'll starve to death , that 's all , '' he said . `` We 'll just starve to death . '' And it wo n't take long for trouble to reach the streets , he said . Especially since many of the nation 's criminals escaped when Port-au-Prince 's prison collapsed in the quake . `` Very soon we 're going to have a riot , '' Thomas said , this time not laughing . How soon ? `` I do n't give you a week , '' he said . No laugh there either .
Tuesday 's 7.0 earthquake severely damaged Port-au-Prince 's harbor . Workers say sea shipments are vital for Haitians ' survival . Comment: