Relief efforts are under way in southern Haiti, exactly a week after the country was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. As many desperate Haitians flee the capital, Port-au-Prince, for what they hope will be relative safety in other towns and rural areas, and as growing numbers of relief aid workers and foreign troops arrive, bloggers and Twitter users continue to report on local developments, make pleas for emergency assistance, and comment on the government and international response to the crisis. A handful of frequent Twitter users have been invaluable sources of information over the past week. Musician and hotelier Richard Morse, tweeting as @RAMhaiti, had a great deal to say today about the pace and effectiveness of relief efforts: Is the aid really going 2 get 2 the people?. We're looking 4 live bodies..”Did you bring food??” Can u blame someone who's hungry 4 looting? I don't get the feeling that there's a plan…I hope “THE PLANNING COMMITTEE” isn't the “same ol’ folks”..been there,done that. No sense of who is going 2 lead this next phase.There had better be some changes.Better figure out how 2 get food and water 2 ppl real qwik He warned: A hungry man is an angry man. a hungry mob is an angry mob. One of my staff has been here since Tuesday working day and night..left 10 minutes ago..just came back.”the streets aren't good…thieves” But he still managed to crack a joke: Even with all this earthquake trauma, I still get spam mail from Nigerian bankers. Journalist Carel Pedre (@carelpedre) has been another frequent tweeter. On the morning of 19 January, he shared the good news that a couple of supermarkets in Petionville had reopened for business, and struck a note of optimism: I love haiti! I see hope and smile on so many faces today! Photographer Frederic Dupoux (@fredodupoux), on the other hand, made an urgent call for help in the Fontamara area west of downtown Port-au-Prince: In fontamara 27 there is no aid, no medical team no water in sight. #haiti #help #SOS Just spoke to a 5 y-o girl a block fell on her head its an open wound and there's no help around. People around just gave her amoxiciline. Please send some help here. Religious charity workers have been among the most regular on-the-ground bloggers. From Port-au-Prince, Troy Livesay gave a status report on the afternoon of 19 January on the ad hoc medical clinic his Heartline Ministries organisation has set up: We've become a hospital, in that many patients cannot be treated and released. I may not have the accurate count, but I believe we're keeping 14 right now. We're rolling with it…. Via Twitter (@troylivesay), he passed on news from the town of Leogane, close to the earthquake's epicentre: Eyewitness acct f/ Past. Henri-‘Compared to Leogane, Port au Prince is beautiful.’ It must be really,really bad there. In Jacmel, Gwen Mangine paid tribute to her colleagues helping to organise the distribution of airlifted supplies from the town's small airstrip, but she also shared a story of unexpected selfishness in the time of crisis: We've been trying to locate oxygen for a team of doctors that came in. They need it before they can operate. We located a supplier in Jacmel…. He has oxygen. He had tanks. He wouldn't give us the tanks. He said unless we have empty tanks to exchange we cannot have oxygen. I told him that we need it for surgery. He told us than we better get some tanks. I said I would pay him whatever he wanted. Anything. Just ask and I will pay it. He refused. I told him that people were DYING because they need surgery and we cannot do the surgeries without the oxygen. He said he didn't care. I asked him again, “So you're telling me that you want me people to die rather than give us the tanks?” He said, “Yes.” Meanwhile, in the rural village of Fond des Blancs, Canadian charity worker Ellen in Haiti was far removed from the zone of immediate crisis, but expressed the shock and sorrow of many Haitians experiencing the ripple effects of the disaster: …we are not seeing much of the physical suffering, but it is still difficult. The stories are hard. Everyone I know has lost close relatives. Fred, a university grad who had recently been at St. Boniface for a work experience, showed up yesterday. He lost two brothers and everything he owns. He had nowhere else to go…. As time goes by, the realization of how much things have changed is sinking in. The whole world is different. Any plans anyone had for the future here have changed. People have hope, but they realize that even the smallest things may never happen or need to be put on hold indefinitely.