Beirut
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2020 2:54 pm
I remember when I was a kid the reporters would all talk about what a tragedy the devastation of the war was in a city that had been considered the Paris of the Middle East. It is actually one of the few places in the ME that I have long wanted to visit, despite the damage from the war.
It is so upsetting to see the people there suffering such a horrific event after all the hardship they were already enduring under their ruined economy and the pandemic. It is utterly devastating to know that it happened as the result of the abject negligence of judicial officials, who ignored repeated warnings about the massive cache of ammonium nitrate being stored in unsafe conditions for years.
Reading about the story led me to information about the Texas City disaster of 1947, when it is speculated a discarded cigarette butt ultimately led to a mismanaged fire that sparked the explosion of a boat loaded with 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate, and the subsequent horrific devastation of that city and the deaths of nearly 600 people with property damages totaling the equivalent of 1 billion dollars. Reading the descriptions of that disaster, I can’t imagine the horror for the people who lived through it.
I can’t imagine the horror the people of Beirut are living through right now. Heartbreaking.
It is so upsetting to see the people there suffering such a horrific event after all the hardship they were already enduring under their ruined economy and the pandemic. It is utterly devastating to know that it happened as the result of the abject negligence of judicial officials, who ignored repeated warnings about the massive cache of ammonium nitrate being stored in unsafe conditions for years.
Reading about the story led me to information about the Texas City disaster of 1947, when it is speculated a discarded cigarette butt ultimately led to a mismanaged fire that sparked the explosion of a boat loaded with 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate, and the subsequent horrific devastation of that city and the deaths of nearly 600 people with property damages totaling the equivalent of 1 billion dollars. Reading the descriptions of that disaster, I can’t imagine the horror for the people who lived through it.
I can’t imagine the horror the people of Beirut are living through right now. Heartbreaking.