With the death toll well into the hundreds three days after Hurricane Matthew swept through Haiti, members of Montreal's Haitian community are urging people to donate to help the impoverished country recover.
One Haitian Montrealer who's helping to lead that charge is Neil Armand, and he said the situation is even more dire than after the devasting earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
"It's worse than the earthquake because the buildings that were left standing were there and the food that was in them was there. Everything is gone, the animals, gone, the crops, gone."
Armand's wife hails from southern Haiti, the hardest hit area, but because of mass power outages cutting communications he hasn't heard from them since Tuesday, when the hurricane arrived.
"At 7:13 I got the last news from my brother in law, it was 'we're underwater and we need to run out' and that's it, no news since then."
Armand said that rural towns and villages, including his wife's hometowns, were flattened.
"Take the West Island, put a bulldozer down, run over 90 per cent of the bulidings, cut all roads from bringing any supplies, make sure the water is poisoned and there's no more food, that's the current situation of these people."
It's that sort of scene that has prompted Armand to go seeking donations. He is urging Montrealers to give specifically to the Canadian Red Cross by visiting their web site, as he believes they have the best systems in place to help Haitians in need.
Myrian Marotte from the Canadian Red Cross confirmed that the aid organization has people on the ground already.
"We already have Canadians in Haiti that were there prior to the hurricane. It's in order to deliver emergency relief items such as tarpaulins for shelter, tablets to purify water and blankets, jerry cans."
Marotte said it's best that people give money, as opposed to items such as food, blankets or clothes.
"We ask for financial support instead of in kind donations because it helps us save on transportation and logistics."
The city of Montreal has also pledged $60,000 to help relief efforts, while the Quebec government has pledged $100,000.
To make a donation, click on the Canadian Red Cross' web site: https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1951&ea.campaign.id=56973&_ga=1.152809338.234334537.1475870042