PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Faced with almost apocalyptic devastation following last week's earthquake, Haiti's poorest slum dwellers said the sense of abandonment and loss at times is simply too much to bear.

"We were already poor before the earthquake. So now what are we?" asks Frantz Saint Hilaire, a student who lives in Port-au-Prince's City of God, where desperate residents have yet to see an international aid truck.

The major earthquake has also split in two many of the district's twisting streets as residents cope with collapsed homes and tend to the scores of dead.

The people of the City of God have awakened since the quake not knowing if they will have anything to eat or drink all day.

"No one has come to even ask us if we need anything. Our situation is so desperate. Our children have absolutely nothing to put in their mouths," said one local, Jean Max Romeus.

Not knowing where to turn, many residents have taken to looting collapsed homes.

They are among the hundreds convinced that in the strange world they now must survive, there is nothing wrong with looting, whether to get a bite to eat or find valuables to sell on the street.

"Tragedy has turned us into thieves," said one old man, echoing a thought many locals repeat.

In the tiny stream that snakes through the slum, there are still bodies that have not been collected one week after the quake struck, and the stench is overpowering.

There are bodies in homes, bodies in churches, bodies in two primary schools.

"We don't know what aid has reached what part of the city, but we have not seen any here," said Placide Jemais, the father of four girls between the ages of three and 10.

"We cannot hide reality from our kids, and these images are just too terrible for them."

Jemais' home collapsed in the quake, and since then he has been living outdoors like many neighbors.

"We are all getting together in the central part of City of God after 6:00 pm to sleep. Darkness in this city makes us frightened, so it is a lot better for us to protect each other," he said.

The 6.1-strength aftershock that rocked Port-au-Prince on Wednesday for many added insult to injury.

"We haven't even been able to bury our dead yet and we are already back fearing for our lives," said Saint Hilaire, pointing to many homes on the brink of collapse.

"Please write that we need urgently and most of all, water, food and medicines. The rest can wait."

"As of today, we don't know if there are even any plans for aid to be sent in here," Jemais added.

Elsewhere in the city, the United Nations defended its emergency aid program, and a US commander warned that security concerns had to be dealt with before aid could be distributed safely.

Lieutenant General Ken Keen, head of a US military contingent some 11,000-strong, warned that chaotic aid distribution would risk lives.

"We'll have to secure these distribution points," he told Agence France-Presse while visiting Cite Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods.

"If you bring a truck of food it would be a riot. You want to do it so that it's safe. You don't want somebody to get killed over a bottle of water."