In the early morning of this Wednesday, August 5, the day after two huge explosions which claimed the lives of more than 100 people and left more than 4000 wounded, according to a still provisional assessment, the "toxic" fumes are still being felt in ravaged Beirut. . The night was short for the inhabitants of the Lebanese capital. “I couldn't sleep,” says Cyrine. I would wake up every second and relive the shaking over and over again. "
At the time of the explosion, the 30-year-old woman and her family were in a supermarket, four kilometers from the port. “Since waking up, I have coughed a lot. The smell of gas is hard to bear, ”she explains. She describes "air difficult to breathe" under a "yellowish sky" and a "heavy atmosphere". In shock, many have already left Beirut.
“It's really like having the worst nightmares,” Emanuela says. I live one kilometer from the port. Fortunately, I was not home when the explosion occurred. At 11pm, I got home and saw the damage: dust everywhere and no more windows. I couldn't stay, so I slept in my second apartment, 20 kilometers from Beirut, ”recounts this 40-year-old woman, who lives alone with her two children.
Mutual aid and solidarity
Faced with the “apocalyptic” situation, the Beirutis help each other and organize themselves, alone, as if cut off from the world. Nareg, 19, went to donate his blood "early this morning to help overcrowded hospitals." “In Lebanon, people are united, civil society is mobilizing its resources. There are those who have volunteered in hospitals or with those who no longer have a residence. The Lebanese no longer have confidence in their policies, so they save themselves, ”said Ziad, 44, public policy adviser.
VIDEO. Beirut hospitals saturated after double explosion
On social networks, offers of rooms or entire apartments are multiplying. Malack, 23, is a speech therapy student at Saint Joseph University. Reached on the phone this Wednesday at midday, she says she left the city after the explosion and decided to make her accommodation available. “My apartment can accommodate six people. I have not yet been contacted, but if people need it, I will come back to Beirut, fill the refrigerator and I will return to southern Lebanon with my family, ”she explains.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
According to Marwan Abboud, the governor of the capital, 300,000 people would be left homeless: “Almost half of Beirut is destroyed or damaged,” he said, estimating the cost of the damage at more than three billion dollars (more than 2.5 billion euros).
Early Wednesday morning, residents began clearing roads in the Lebanese capital. Walid, 49, business lawyer, lives in a chic residential area in the city center, one kilometer from the port as the crow flies. This father is busy putting some semblance of order in his home. “The windows have been shattered, the doors are damaged, the false ceilings have collapsed but the walls have held up and my wife and my children are unharmed,” he explains. It's a miracle, they were all present at home and have no injuries… ”
In his entourage, not all have had the same luck. “The father of a friend lived on the 23rd floor of a luxury building,” says Walid. He was injured by the explosion of a bay window, lost a lot of blood and the time to try to descend the 23 floors by the stairs, the elevator being out of service, he was dead… ”.
The fear of a food shortage
The concerns of the Lebanese are also about the coming food shortages. According to the World Food Program (WFP), inflation of basic foodstuffs reached 109% between September and May. Two out of three Lebanese households also experienced a drop in income. “Lebanon imports 80% of its food,” says Maya Terro, founder of Food Blessed, a Lebanese NGO. She now fears an explosion in food insecurity. “The port was the gateway to imports. Immediately I thought of the soon-to-be-empty supermarket shelves ”.
As soon as we woke up, this Wednesday morning, the queues multiplied at the entrance of the bakeries. “A whole grain silo has gone up in smoke. Soon, we might run out of bread, ”Michael laments. This Frenchman who has lived in Beirut for 13 years is worried about the situation to come. “For a year, the country has been in crisis, we already no longer eat meat, the children no longer go to school, we no longer have electricity… This explosion is too much. "
VIDEO. Lebanon: two strong explosions shake Beirut, dead and thousands injured
