A helicopter sprays water over the port following the collapse of four more silos on Aug. 4, 2022. (Credit: Joao Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh told MTV overnight that the fall of another section of the northern bloc of silos at the Beirut port is "expected."
Here's what we know:
• Hamieh said that "security services are following up on the matter on the ground, and all employees have been evacuated from the vicinity of the port silos, including the civil defense centers and the fire brigade."
• He said that the northern portion of the silos are tilting in one direction at a rate of 30 mm per hour and 15-20 mm per hour in the other.
• During a meeting on Wednesday between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin and Forces of Change MPs Najat Saliba and Melhem Khalaf, officials made a decision to demolish only the already collapsing northern block of the grain silos but preserve the more stable southern side, in addition to extinguishing the fire at the silos that has been ablaze for more than a month.
• Eight silos from the northern block have already collapsed — four fell on July 31 and another four on Aug. 4, on the second anniversary of the Beirut explosion. Experts have said that the collapse of additional silos from the northern block is inevitable.