The Horrific Explosion in Beirut

By now, everyone has heard about what happened earlier this week in Beirut.  

There was an explosion near the port, where ammonium nitrate had been stored, and without safety measures.  

The explosion was massive, causing serious damage for much of the city. Buildings were hit hard. Cars sent flying. Windows shattered throughout much of the city.  

As of right now, I heard that over 100 people are dead, with thousands more wounded. Hospitals in Beirut are filled. And apparently, hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless because of the explosion.  

Admittedly, when I first heard about it, my suspicions were terrorism. After all, terrorist attacks are not uncommon in the Middle East. And everyone who remembers the eighties surely remembers the Beirut bombing.  

But I was wrong. It was apparently caused by negligence. From what I heard on NPR and CBS News, there was a ship that needed to unload the ammonium nitrate six year ago. And there were officials who knew that the explosive chemicals were stored there for years now, yet nothing was done about it.  

How could they store such explosive chemicals inside of a major city like this? That is a really scary thought, and hardly reassuring.  

The blame game has only begun. We will see further developments over the course of the next days and weeks.



Hundreds of thousands left homeless by Beirut explosion by Zeina Khodr, August 5, 2020: 
Up to 300,000 people have lost their homes with damage estimated at billions of dollars.


https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/hundreds-thousands-left-homeless-beirut-explosion-200805141851282.html