of people who spent the night in a dark park across the street . A rooster 's crowing could sometimes be heard above the din . After electricity in the hotel was shut off at 1 a.m. , CNN technicians worked on satellite equipment by flashlight . The hotel resembles a compound , with razor wire topping eight-foot walls and a gated parking lot , guarded by a man wielding an old shotgun . And although the hotel 's residents seemed safe , and street violence had not been seen , there was a feeling of apprehension . As dawn broke , residents wandered slowly through the streets , their destination unknown in a city with seemingly nowhere to go . Still , there were glimmers of hope that the situation was inching toward improvement . The airport , damaged by the quake , began to come back to life Wednesday . The Aeroport International Toussaint Louverture had been closed since the quake struck . But by Wednesday afternoon , the first small-plane commercial flights started to arrive . The airport picked up energy and vitality as planes carrying supplies and ferrying search-and-rescue squads began filling the tarmac . Francklin
Port-au-Prince , Haiti -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Haiti 's capital awoke to increasing desperation Thursday morning , a day and a half after a devastating earthquake , with covered bodies piling up along streets and modern aspects of life , such as electricity , mostly missing . The streets of Port-au-Prince resembled grainy black-and-white newsreels from World War II that showed the rubble of bombed-out houses in Berlin and London . The devastation was wide and often horrific . A one-hour drive from the airport to a walled-in hotel where the CNN contingent is staying revealed the widespread destruction from Tuesday 's 7.0-magnitude earthquake . Flattened and severely damaged houses were found on every block , and the streets were choked with pedestrians and residents . They set up overnight camps and slept by the thousands in dark and crowded parks and on sidewalks , for fear of being inside if another powerful quake hit . Numerous aftershocks have rattled the capital . Sporadic gunfire was heard Wednesday night outside the hotel where CNN is lodged . Sirens could be heard at times , but the predominant sounds in the pre-dawn darkness were the shouts and screams from the thousands