The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti a couple days ago is the biggest national disaster in the modern history of that nation.  Because most of Haiti's buildings were never designed to withstand an earthquake, the devastation has been multiplied.  The earthquake has transformed most hospitals, houses, schools, roads and grocery stores into piles of rubble.  At this point reports are coming in that virtually all vital infrastructure in Port au Prince appears to have been totally destroyed. 

One CNN reporter recently described the situation in Port au Prince this way....

"The vast majority of downtown Port-au-Prince is a mess of dead bodies, rebar and concrete."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is comparing the Haiti earthquake to the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people five years ago.

So just how many are dead?

Nobody is going to have an official number for quite some time.  The truth is that there are so many bodies buried under the rubble that it could take weeks to dig them all out. 

Right now there is no place to put all the dead bodies that have already been recovered, so they are literally being piled in the streets.  Early estimates of 100,000 dead have now been dismissed as being far too low.  In fact, according to one report, up to half a million people are feared dead and another three million have been made homeless by the Haiti earthquake.

Half a million dead?

In a nation as small as Haiti, that would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.

The truth is that Haiti was already one of the poorest countries in the entire region.  Now that their capital has been essentially destroyed, the poverty and suffering for those who have survived is only going to multiply.

Fortunately it appears that the world is very eager to send aid to Haiti so hopefully the suffering can be minimized.

But the tragedy in Haiti is causing many to wonder what area will be hit next.

In particular, many of those who study earthquakes believe that California is way overdue for "The Big One".

Now, a flurry of recent earthquake activity all over the state of California is raising concerns that California could be next. 

A very large number of small earthquakes have been reported all over the state of California in the last 7 days.

So could we see a tragedy on the scale of what is happening in Haiti occur in the state of California someday?

Well, the truth is that we could see something far worse.

While a 7.0 would not do as much damage in most areas of California as it did in Haiti, the reality is that California is likely to see a much more powerful earthquake someday.

In fact, there are many who believe that we will see an earthquake that is so bad someday that it will cause a portion of California to actually slide into the ocean.

The belief that "The Big One" will one day hit California is so prevalent that even Time Magazine has done a major story about it.

So far the state of California has been relatively fortunate.  It has seen a couple substantial earthquakes over the past couple of decades, but the true "killer quake" has not struck yet.

When it does, it could make the situation in Haiti look like a Sunday picnic.