State Department employees are accounted for after quake

State Department personnel working in the U.S. embassy in Haiti during Tuesday's devastating earthquake have been located and nonessential employees are being evacuated.

Almost all the 172 employees working in the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, 10 miles from where the 7.0 earthquake hit, were accounted for by Wednesday morning; of them, eight are injured and four are seriously wounded, according to Cheryl Mills, counselor and chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Mills spoke during a press conference on the federal government's response to the disaster. The U.S. Coast Guard was evacuating about 80 spouses, children and nonessential personnel.

At the time the disaster struck, there were fewer than 20 U.S. military members stationed in Haiti; as of Wednesday midafternoon, some of them had not been located, according to reports. The U.S. embassy sustained limited damage and is serving as a point of contact and support for victims and their families. There are 45,000 U.S. citizens living and working in Haiti.

President Obama, who named U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah to lead the government's relief effort, on Wednesday pledged a "swift, coordinated and aggressive" response. Obama is sending an initial unit of 2,000 Marines to assist the country, while the Air Force is providing air traffic control and the Coast Guard, part of the Homeland Security Department, is performing reconnaissance missions and evacuations along with the Defense Department. USAID, rather than the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is leading the government's response because the earthquake occurred outside the United States.

State has established a toll-free hotline (888-407-4747) for people to connect with family members in Haiti. Multiple Web sites, including the Center for International Disaster Information, MercyCorps, and the American Red Cross, are accepting donations to help with relief programs and aid funding in Haiti.