let's go to michael holmes, cnn international anchor and correspondent, the miami herald's jackie charles is also with us. she's the paper's caribbean correspondent. she'll be on her way to haiti, by the way, first thing tomorrow morning. michael, earthquakes in the tropics. have you ever heard of this? >> amazing, isn't it? you know, there is a lot of earthquakes around the world every year, but they rarely get into this sort of level, this 7.0 level. and also the damage that's done in a place like haiti. because, you know, the buildings aren't built the way we would expect. the foundations aren't great. there is a lot of concrete buildings there but not well built. there is a lot of shanty towns there. larry, i just got this here. this is really the engine room of our coverage where people are assigning crews, getting them out in the field, getting them down to haiti and getting the nfgts in. seconds ago, i just got this from one of our people here, a u.n. official telling her the u.n. headquarters in haiti has collapsed, the building has collapsed. they have not been able to reach any

again our michael holmes there speaking to mr. pedrei in the hours just after the skwak struck. we'll move on to the story of the united nations headquarters. this is developing as we speak. the united nations saying that the headquarters have collapsed and that a large number of its staff of still reported missing. they're not accounted for. senior u.n. correspondent richard roth is on the phone for us. he is in new york. richard, how much do you know at this hour? >> well, the united nations is having trouble with its communications, but it's important to note that u.n. peace keeping there may have suffered major damage in terms of personnel and in the property. more important on the people. the u.n.'s peacekeeping chief saying that the u.n. headquarters in port-au-prince collapsed. now, another u.n. official telling me that the building at normal times during the day could house 200 to 250 people, it's a five- hiffive-story buil. they can't confirm how many may be trapped and how many have been killed or injured. soldiers have set up a cordon around the headquarters building

. >> michael holmes for us. michael, thanks. >>> much more ahead on "larry king" and throughout the night. >> larry: we are, of course, around the clock with coverage of this tragedy in haiti. with us in the studio here in los angeles is garcel bove nilon. she joins us tonight. we'll talk with her at length later. joining us off the top is bob pauff. he was driving when the earthquake struck. he's comes to us via skype. where were you, bob, and what happened? what did you observe? >> well, i was driving down the mounta mountain to port-au-prince when the truck i was driving started to wrench sideways vial enthely. i thought i was being rocked by rioters. i didn't know what was happening. and then when it stopped, i realized this was an earthquake. i was not expecting an earthquake in haiti. as i looked at my window, i saw then the buildings, all the buildings, the homes, just pancaking down, one on top of the other on top of the other. as i looked in the rear-view mirror, i could see buildings, the ripple effect,