A plane flying over the destroyed silos of the Beirut Port, on July 28, 2022, in the Lebanese capital, two years after the deadly explosion. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L’Orient-Le Jour)
On Aug. 4, 2020, Hala, 55, a mother of three daughters, was at home in Beirut’s Achrafieh neighborhood when her house was torn apart by the detonation of tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of Beirut. The blast devastated much of the city, killing more than 235 people and injuring thousands.“I was among the lucky ones who escaped unscathed, but that very evening I knew this was a turning point, and that I have to leave,” she says. At 6:07 p.m. that day, the moment the explosion struck, Wissam, 52, who was running a company at the time, was in Dbayeh, in Metn, north of Beirut. Terrified by the blast, the mother of a family got into her car and headed to the capital to check on her parents. It took her more than six hours to travel a few kilometers.“On the way, I stopped by my office in Zalka, [also in Metn, just a few kilometers...
On Aug. 4, 2020, Hala, 55, a mother of three daughters, was at home in Beirut’s Achrafieh neighborhood when her house was torn apart by the detonation of tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of Beirut. The blast devastated much of the city, killing more than 235 people and injuring thousands.“I was among the lucky ones who escaped unscathed, but that very evening I knew this was a turning point, and that I have to leave,” she says. At 6:07 p.m. that day, the moment the explosion struck, Wissam, 52, who was running a company at the time, was in Dbayeh, in Metn, north of Beirut. Terrified by the blast, the mother of a family got into her car and headed to the capital to check on her parents. It took her more than six hours to travel a few kilometers.“On the way, I stopped by my office in Zalka, [also in Metn, just a few...
