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>> There has been a huge earthquake, magnitude 7.0 just off the coast of Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
>> More than 9 million people live in Haiti and there are reports that some buildings have collapsed with people buried underneath.
>> The prediction now of the death toll is 140,000. And all of this in a country the size of Maryland.
>> In times of great challenge in our country and around the world, Americans have always come together to lend a hand and to serve others and to do what's right.That's what the American people have been doing in recent days with their extraordinary generosity and contributions to the Haitian people.
>> In Katrina in 2005, Americans donated about $400,000 thru text messaging. Last year, for all of 2009, for call causes fundraising via cell phone hit the $2 million mark nationwide. And that was all very good, very philanthropic. But this time, for this disaster, the charitable donation numbers we are seeing dwarf those totals.
>> One of the great new tools thats really emerged with the Haiti earthquake catastrophe is the ability to use text messaging as a way to fundraise. So for example, you can dial a certain number and you'll be billed $10 on your cell phone bill and that $10 will go directly to the Red Cross.
>> I would say, that due to the Internet, we have really seen an accerlation in the response to humanitarian crises.
>> What the Business Civic Leadership Center does is we help the US business community resond to disasters. And the Internet is a core part of that because it serves as a vehicle for us to send out alerts about what's going on in real time, and to help people understand how they can help out the best way by identifying needs and by identifying the services and the products that can help meet those needs as quickly as possible.
>> You know, everybody asks us after a disaster how much money did the private sector give? But the truth is, is the goal is not about the money that's raised, the goal is about how fast we're saving people's lives, how we're finding shelter, how we're getting health care to people that need it, how we're helping them pick up the pieces, how we're turning around to help Haiti recover as effectively and as quickly as possible.
>> We think that we're saving lives and that we're helping people get out of harm's way much more quickly in large part because of the Internet and because of the technology capabilities that we have today compared to what we had even five or ten years ago.