Front page of L'Orient after the earthquake of March 16, 1956. (Credit: OLJ Archives)
“The ground gives way; it enters you; it goes through you. Then you look at your neighbors … The land was shaking, and they are inhabited by this same blind presence.”These were the words of George Naccache – founder of the L'Orient newspaper that later became L'Orient-Le Jour. Naccache wrote these words in an article titled “That night …,” in which he attributes an “animal anger” to nature, marvels at its “monstrous communication” with the “uncontrollable cosmos,” all while heeding the warnings of an “anxious earth .”On March 17, 1956, the region awoke to the news of a “triple earthquake.” That night, death visited the homes of thousands of Lebanese without warningThe night before, between 9:33 pm and 9:47 pm, the ground gave way three times. In Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Cyprus, a “crack in the earth's crust” caused...
“The ground gives way; it enters you; it goes through you. Then you look at your neighbors … The land was shaking, and they are inhabited by this same blind presence.”These were the words of George Naccache – founder of the L'Orient newspaper that later became L'Orient-Le Jour. Naccache wrote these words in an article titled “That night …,” in which he attributes an “animal anger” to nature, marvels at its “monstrous communication” with the “uncontrollable cosmos,” all while heeding the warnings of an “anxious earth .”On March 17, 1956, the region awoke to the news of a “triple earthquake.” That night, death visited the homes of thousands of Lebanese without warningThe night before, between 9:33 pm and 9:47 pm, the ground gave way three times. In Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Cyprus, a...
