Lebanese Facing Lots of Damages after Beirut Blast

Residents of Beirut awoke to a scene of total destruction on Wednesday, a day after a huge explosion at the port sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 100 people and wounding thousands.

Smoke was still rising from the port, where huge banks of grain gushed from scooped-out storage tower. Major center streets were littered with remains and damaged vehicles, and building frontages were blown out.

An official with the Lebanese Red Cross said at least 100 people were killed and more than 4000 were woundedere killed and more than 4,000 were wounded. The official, George Kettaneh, said the toll could rise more.

Scores of people were lost, with relatives insistent on social media for help tracing loved ones. An Instagram page called “Locating Victims Beirut” leaped up with photos of missing people, and radio hosts read the names of missing or wounded people throughout the night. Many residents moved in with friends or relatives after their apartments were damaged and treated their own injuries because hospitals were overwhelmed.

It was unclear what caused the blast, which seemed to have been caused by a fire and hit with the force of an earthquake. It was the most powerful explosion ever seen in the city, which was on the front lines of the 1975-1990 civil war and has tolerated wars with neighbouring Israel and periodic bombings and terror attacks.

Lebanon was already on the edge of failure amid a severe economic crisis that has exploded mass protests in recent months. Its hospitals are confronting a rush in coronavirus cases, and there were fears the virus could spread further as people flooded into hospitals.

Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi told a local TV station that it appeared the blast was caused by the explosion of more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a warehouse at the port ever since it was removed from a cargo ship in 2014.

Witnesses reported seeing an orange cloud like that which appears when toxic nitrogen dioxide gas is released after an blast involving nitrates. Ammonium nitrate is a common ingredient in fertilizer but can also be highly explosive.

Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, when a truck bomb containing 2,180 kilograms of fertilizer and fuel oil ripped through a federal building, killing 168 people and wounding hundreds more.

There is no evidence the Beirut explosion was an attack.

Security forces cordoned off the port area on Wednesday as a bulldozer entered to help clear away remains.

In Beirut’s hard-hit Achrafieh district, civil defence workers and soldiers were working on locating missing people and clearing the ruins.

The blast destroyed many apartment buildings, potentially leaving large numbers of people homeless at a time when many Lebanese have lost their jobs and seen their savings vanish because of a money crisis. The explosion also raises concerns about how Lebanon will continue to import nearly all of its vital goods with its main port destroyed.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab, in a short televised speech, appealed to all countries and friends of Lebanon to extend help to the small nation.

There is also the issue of food security in Lebanon, a tiny country already hosting over 1 million Syrians amid that country’s yearslong war.

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