08/05/2020 - 10:05
- Clarín.com
- World
After a huge explosion, which left her in ruins and bloody, Beirut woke up on Wednesday to an apocalyptic scene.
On the day after, the outlook is bleak: 300,000 people lost their homes in one breath. The costs of destruction exceed 3 billion dollars and could reach 5 billion. There is more. Hospitals set up new morgues. And firefighters search for dead under the rubble. One hundred people do not appear anywhere.
In a country, already immersed in the black hole of an economic crisis that begins to play with the hunger of the population, the explosion swept the grain silos in the port from the face of the planet. Lebanon now has grains for "less than a month" -
The smoking silos, the day after the explosion. / AFP
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Beirut residents woke up to an apocalyptic scene of total devastation
Smoke continued to come out of the remains of these silos in the port on Wednesday morning .
The main streets of the city center were full of rubble and damaged cars with their ari bags detonated and the facades of the buildings torn off.
There are more than 100 dead and 4,000 wounded, said George Kettaneh, a Lebanon Red Cross official, adding that the death toll could rise .
Dozens of people are missing and their relatives asked for help to find them through social networks. An Instagram page called "Locating Victims of Beirut" was filled with photos of the missing, and radio program drivers read the names of the wounded and missing overnight.
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The photos of the tremendous explosion that destroyed part of the port of Beirut
Many residents moved into the homes of friends or relatives after their apartments were damaged and their own wounds healed because hospitals were overflowing. An estimated 300,000 people lost their homes. Hotels and other accommodations opened their doors overnight to welcome them.
The explosion
There is no confirmation of what caused the explosion that had the force of an earthquake. But everything points to an ammonium nitrate deposit that was in the port of Beirut six years ago, despite requests to move it.
Explosion in Beirut
Infographic: Clarín
Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi told a local channel that the incident appeared to be caused by the detonation of more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a port warehouse since they were confiscated from a merchant ship in 2014.
Witnesses said they saw an orange cloud like the one that appears when toxic nitrogen dioxide gas is released after an explosion with nitrates. Ammonium nitrate is a common ingredient in fertilizers, but it can also be highly explosive.
This product was used in an attack in Oklahoma City in 1995, when a truck with 4,100 kilos (4,800 pounds) of fertilizer and fuel destroyed a federal building, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more.
The explosion was the most powerful recorded in the city, which was on the front line during the civil war (1975-1990) and has endured conflicts with neighboring Israel and periodic terrorist attacks and bombings.
Videos showed what looked like a fire start in the immediate vicinity just before the blast, and local broadcasters reported that a fireworks warehouse was involved. The fire seemed to spread to a nearby building, causing the explosion, the mushroom cloud, and the blast wave.
There was no evidence that the Beirut explosion was an attack.
"L'Apocalypse" ("The Apocalypse"), said the cover of the French newspaper L'Orient Le Jour. Another newspaper, al-Akhbar, published on its front page a photograph of the destroyed port with the phrase "The great collapse "
Economic crisis and Covid
Lebanon was already on the verge of collapse due to a severe economic crisis that caused massive protests in recent months. Hospitals were facing a spike in COVID-19 infections and are concerned that the coronavirus may spread more as the population overflows hospitals.
Security forces cordoned off the port area on Wednesday after a bulldozer entered to remove the wreckage. A young man pleaded with the soldiers to let him through to look for his dad, who has been missing since the incident. He was redirected to a port official who noted the details.
In one of the worst affected districts, Achrafieh , civil defense workers and soldiers were trying to locate the missing and clean up the rubble. At least one man was still trapped under the stones of an old building that collapsed. The volunteers gave him an oxygen bottle to help him breathe while others tried to free his leg.
Soldiers search for bodies in the rubble. / AP
The blast tore apart numerous apartment buildings, potentially leaving large numbers of people homeless at a time when many Lebanese have lost their jobs and seen their savings evaporate due to the currency crisis. There is also concern about how the country will continue to import almost all essential goods with its main port devastated.
In a short televised speech, Prime Minister Hassan Diab called on all Lebanese countries and friends to expand their aid: "We are witnessing a real catastrophe." The leader reiterated his promise that those responsible for the disaster will pay therefore, without commenting on the cause.
Ruined wheat
Lebanon, a small nation that is home to more than a million Syrians who fled the war in their country, also has a food security problem.
The largest grain silo in the port is managed by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. Images taken by The Associated Press on Wednesday with drones showed the blast knocking those deposits down, throwing their contents among the rubble and dirt. The country imports about 80% of its wheat supply, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
The port was devastated, and Lebanon does not know how to resume exports. / AFP
Estimates suggest that about 85% of the nation's grain was stored in silos now destroyed.
In statements published by the state news agency, the Minister of Economy and Commerce, Raoul Nehme, said that all the wheat stored in the warehouse was "contaminated" and could not be used .
The economic crisis in the small Mediterranean nation was rooted in decades of systematic corruption and misgovernment of a political class that has held power since the end of the civil war.
Since last fall, the Lebanese have held mass protests calling for radical political change, but few of their demands have been met and the economic situation has steadily worsened.
Three days of mourning have been declared in the country.
The Associated Press and BBC News