Scientists Warned Haiti Officials Of Quake In 2008

But the researchers say their findings came too late for the impoverished nation to act before Tuesday's deadly magnitude 7.0 quake, reports 11Alive.com.

Their conclusions also lacked a specific timeframe that could have prodded quick action to shore up hospitals, schools and other buildings that collapsed.

Purdue University geophysicist Eric Calais conducted research that predicted the fault was capable of causing a 7.2-magnitude quake near Haiti's capital. Those findings were presented at a conference in March 2008 and at meetings two months later.

The International Red Cross estimates that between 40,000 and 50,000 people have been killed and three million people - a third of Haiti's population - have been affected by the earthquake.

Bulldozers helped move some of the rubble, while some Haitians have been using bare hands to try to free those trapped in the debris.

Haitian star Wyclef Jean spent Thursday clearing bodies from the streets of Port-au-Prince, as he called for the government to impose a state of emergency and warned of impending chaos.

"We spent the day picking up dead bodies, all day that's what we did. There's so much bodies in the streets that the morgues are filled up, the cemeteries are filled up," he told reporters.

"The count is not 100,000 there's at least, has to be four to five hundred thousand people that is about to die."

The former Fugees frontman's sister Melky Jean is also attempting to assist Haiti after the devastation created by Tuesday's earthquake. The singer wanted to mobilize her nonprofit organization to uproot from her base in Miami to Haiti. But she was shocked when a friend suggested a mobile morgue would be more useful instead.

"The most profound thing that I've heard — and a lot of people cannot even fathom this — is when I talked to my friend the counsel general, he said, 'Melky, we need mobile morgues,' " an emotional Jean explained. "I asked him what he meant. He said, 'The morgue is full. We don't have anywhere to put these dead bodies. What are we going to do with all these dead bodies and all these families that need to identify their loved ones?' "

Governments and government agencies have pledged about $400 million worth of aid, including $100 million from the United States.

Google said Thursday it is donating one million dollars and Internet resources to relief organizations on the ground in earthquake-shattered Haiti. The Internet giant said the money is intended to help with rescues as well as food, water, shelter, and medical support.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was expected to drop anchor off the Haiti coast Friday where it will serve as floating airport for helicopters carrying rescue teams and supplies.

Troops and planeloads of desperately needed food and medicine from many countries began slowly arriving in Haiti Thursday.  The aid flights, however, have swamped the main airport.

Aid agency officials and workers say looting of food and other supplies has become an increasing problem as people become more desperate.

Former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide, exiled in South Africa since 2004, said Friday he was ready to return to help rebuild the country.

"As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country," he told reporters.

The 56-year-old former priest was Haiti's first democratically elected leader, but failed to win the approval of the Caribbean nation's middle and upper classes during his two stints as president.

He was ousted in 2004, and has long maintained that he was forced to step down under pressure from the United States and France.