Rokaya Nasser Eldeen holds her son Abbas at her home in Medicine Hat and talks about her parents, siblings and their children who are all in Beirut, Lebanon, where a massive explosion ripped through the port killing about 135 people and injuring more than 5,000 on Tuesday.--NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
With her parents, siblings and their children all in Beirut, a Medicine Hat woman felt total shock when she became aware of the massive explosion there on Tuesday.
“Shock – it is real, and right away I was thinking of my family,” said Rokaya Nasser Eldeen.
She says she was crying as she spent an hour trying to phone her family but could not get through to them. She then tried government offices and could not get through to anyone there either.
About an hour later she reached a member of her family.
“They are safe,” said Nasser Eldeen.
Although they were not physically harmed, because they live further away from the site of the explosion, they were in shock. They had broken windows in their homes and they talked of the terror of not knowing what had caused the explosion.
Nasser Eldeen says it did not take long to begin receiving reports of her family’s neighbours who had been dramatically affected. An officer in the army, who had been married three weeks ago, was stationed near the explosion and he died.
“You still feel the pain of others,” she said. “It is like a nightmare.”
At a time like this she wishes she could be closer to her loved ones and is missing them.
As bad as the damage is, Nasser Eldeen says it would have been worse if the site had not been protected by the harbour on one side.
According to an Associated Press report an investigation into the cause of the explosion was focusing on negligence in the storage of 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate at a waterfront warehouse. The government had also ordered the house arrest of several port officials.
Ammonium nitrate is a component of fertilizer and had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from a ship in 2013. On Tuesday it is believed to have detonated after a fire broke out nearby.
By Wednesday the number of people killed in the explosion was more than 135 and about 5,000 were injured. Residents were faced with a scene of utter devastation and smoke still rising from the port. The blast tore out a crater 200 metres (yards) across that filled with seawater, as if the Mediterranean had taken a bite out of the port and swallowed buildings with it. Much of downtown was littered with damaged cars and debris.
Nasser Eldeen talks about the beauty and rich history of Beirut where she herself is from before she came to Canada a few years ago. She is concerned about the impact of the devastation on businesses and the destruction of infrastructure in the city.
— with files from The Associated Press
