BOSTON -- As the world responds to the earthquake-ravaged country of Haiti, members of Massachusetts' Haitian community -- one of the largest in the U.S. -- are also gearing up to help as they struggle to get word about loved ones.

Boston will open a crisis center Thursday for the city's Haitian population, at the headquarters of a service union office on Mount Vernon street in Dorchester. Boston is home to an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Haitian-Americans.

Translators and crisis counselors will be on hand, providing phone lines for families who need help contacting loved ones.

Hundreds of Boston's Haitians gathered at the city's Cathedral of the Holy Cross Wednesday night, filled with uncertainty.

"No contact at all, so it's kind of nerve-wracking. We're just waiting, hoping ..." Edna Laurent-Tellus said.

"One of my nephews, OK, gone. And I got a nephew, a niece, with no place to stay," said a man sitting in one of the packed pews.

Many at the service had cell phones pressed to their ears, anxiously waiting for word.

"You are frightened for your families, you are worried. I am here to tell you: you are not alone. You are not alone," Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick told them.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry spoke to the gathering in both English and French, telling them that one of the obstacles in the way of delivering aid to Haiti has been the loss of communications. He said several U.S. Navy ships were on the way to the Caribbean nation with search and rescue and medical crews.

State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry reminded the gathering to make sure if they're donating funds to help to make sure they're giving to credible charities.

"It is important that we support organizations that are going to get the funds, the clothes and the food to Haiti and to the people," she said.

In the wake of the devastation, however, many members of the community were also turning their fears into action. Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley called for local parishes to collect relief funds for Catholic Relief Services during next weekend's services. Many state charities are still trying to determine how they can best help.

"People who are experts are on the ground trying to do assessments and find out what's going on, so it's very hard, right now, to start mobilizing supplies and those sorts of things, to send to Haiti," said Deborah Jackson of Boston's Red Cross.

Haitian business owners in the city's Mattapan neighborhood were organizing a Haitian relief task force and are creating teams to collect supplies and counsel local families.

"This one is a young kid they are trying to pull from his school," said Jacques Jean, a Haitian who has been glued to Internet pictures on his computer at the small technical school he runs in Mattapan since the quake shook his homeland Tuesday night.

He was relieved to get word that his father and eight brothers and sisters are OK.

"I don't trust any news that I'm getting until I can talk to them. I can hear their voices," Jean said.

He said he knows his neighbors feel the same anguish as they see the grim photos of the devastation in Haiti.

"We may have half-a-million people die in Haiti," he said.

He has put together a plan to learn the fate of the missing, with members of his school sending four volunteers to Haiti to try to get information.

"They going to have somebody go to that address and find the person, whether they dead or whether they're still alive. They will call me or send an email to me, telling me this is what happened to the family and I will call that family here," Jean said.

In less than a day he put together a data base of 300 names of local residents who are trying to get news of loved ones. His entire family is helping with the effort.

"I just hope that the people who have a breath out there can get some kind of help, because this is my country too," his daughter Nadine Jean said.

Jean said no news is worse than bad news.

"I think everybody is ready for the bad news because what we see in the news, we know we're going to have a lot of loss," he said.

A Massachusetts woman was among 14 students enrolled at a Florida university who was in Haiti during the earthquake. Her elated parents received word Thursday morning that she had been found alive.

Britney Gengel, 19, of Rutland, is a social work major at Lynn University in Boca Raton. Her group had been staying at the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, working on a public service project with Food for the Poor, a non-profit organization.

She was not listed in initial reports of those who had been found alive, but her father Len said she was located and enroute to Port-Au-Prince.

"There is such positive energy around here. We are just thrilled. We can't wait to go to Florida and bring her home," Britney's mother, Cheryl Ann, said.

How To Help Victims:

Center For International Disaster Information

U.S. Fund For UNICEF

Pan American Relief

State Department's Consular Affairs Web Site

American Red Cross

Boston For Haiti Facebook Group

Looking For Loved Ones?

The U.S. Embassy in Port Au Prince has set up a task force at the Embassy which is taking calls as conditions permit. The Embassy is working to identify U.S. citizens in Haiti who need urgent assistance and to identify sources of emergency help.

U.S. citizens are urged to contact the Embassy via email to request assistance. U.S. citizens in Haiti can call the Embassy's Consular Task Force at 509-2229-8942, 509-2229-8089, 509-2229-8322, or 509-2229-8672.

The State Department has also created a task force to monitor the emergency.

People in the U.S. or Canada with information or inquiries about U.S. citizens in Haiti may reach the Haiti Task Force at 888-407-4747. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, call 202-501-4444. For further information and updates, please see the State Department’s Consular Affairs Web site.