by Max Barry

Latest Forum Topics

Advertisement

Post

Region: Refugia

Flohovistan wrote:Oh my god that's messed up. It's really wrong what happened there.

What's worse is that it appears it could've easily been prevented if the substance that caused the blast which has been identified as ammonium nitrate which was stored at the port after being taken off a Russian Moldovan-flagged ship MV Rhosus which had docked at Beirut in 2013 (the ammonium nitrate was stored in 2014) had been safely disposed of in some way rather than in a big 2,750 ton pile at the port.

Ammonium nitrate is a chemical vital for fertilizers and explosives which can only be set off in this form via explosives or fire (fire in this case caused it to explode) so it was highly irresponsible of the port authorities in charge of storage to leave it there in such massive quantities. The blast left a massive crater in the port. https://newscdn2.weigelbroadcasting.com/EPhW4-1596645408-171116-blog-hypatia-h_6e7433f9171ff0c6cf45429f89eb4b46-h_39e07d778d16ef93187f4510f36cede4.jpg

The blast damaged most of Beirut either through directly impacting it with the explosion or causing damage with the massive shockwave and damaged hospitals throughout the city making some of them unable to treat patients normally. One hospital had to resort to treating patients outside in the elements due to the extensive damage that killed several staff members and injured many patients. The blast also destroyed much of the country's grain (and they were already experiencing food shortages due to the economic collapse from the COVID-19 pandemic) and it was reported that it left Lebanon with less than a month's worth of grain in reserve.

Duolian wrote:The only giant explosion I had on my bingo card for 2020 was Yellowstone. I saw just the before/after pictures for this on a news article and it looked devastating.

I can say that if Yellowstone exploded it would be much bigger than this. If I were to think there would be a massive explosion I would imagine it would be related to Iran and/or Saudi Arabia and their Middle Eastern Cold War.

ContextReport