Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Port of Beirut Devastated by Mushroom Cloud Explosion: Initial Analysis of Raw Video Footage



A massive explosion rocked the Lebanese Capital of Beirut around 6 p.m. local time, with preliminary count of over 100 dead, and injuring over 4,000 additional persons, with countless people still missing. 

Da New Sees World Report
via Daniyel 
Haifa Israel
August 4, 2020

While Beirut has experienced beyond their share of bombings over the past several decades, Tuesday evenings two stage explosion at what is believed to be a seaside warehouse in the Port area of the Lebanese Capital is unprecedented in its scale; leaving even ballistics experts baffled as to the true nature of the explosions. Lebanese Officials have come up with two explanations for these devastating explosions. The first was that this now totally vaporized warehouse contained a huge cache of fireworks; while the second official story now parroted by the Main Stream Media is that this warehouse contained a vast quantity of ammonium nitrate a fertilizer well known for its explosive potential since the infamous Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal building in 1995. Not unlike the scarred face of the Murrah building, Tuesdayś explosions have severely damaged the Ports primary grain silos a structure similar in size the the Oklahoma City Federal building, which is believed to have held as much as 85% of Lebanons total grain reserves at a time when agricultural & shipping shutdowns due to Covid 19 have already decimated the countries grain reserves. 



With the recent string of mysterious fires and explosions in Iran, as well as Syria with credible ties to Israeli culpability it did not take long before finger pointing in the Levant accused Israel for Tuesdayś explosions, an accusation that Jerusalem has flat out denied. 


While multiple eyewitnesses to Tuesdayś  second blast have stated that Beirut´s explosion looked at first impression to be that of a nuclear bomb. Yet scientists quickly determined that no nuclear fallout was present afterwards. While the water vapor from this second explosion in Beirut closely resembles that of the Baker Atomic Bomb set off at the Bikini atoll in 1946, this may well be due to the proximity of this warehouse to the Mediterranean Sea. If you examine the image in the following tweet you will see a significant lagoon now present in the very place where the warehouse that became ground zero in Tuesdayś explosions stood until around 6 p.m. local time. The initial explosion and fires indeed show what may well have been significant fireworks explosions, which may well have ignited the large stockpile of 2,750 Tons of ammonium nitrate which allegedly was seized from an abandoned ship in the harbor of Beirut since 2014. While all previous videos of significant explosions believed to be caused by the ignition of ammonium nitrate, could it be that the uniqueness of this secondary explosion to this former warehouse in the Port of Beirut was due to a massive amount of water vapor due to the proximity of the Mediterranean Sea?

So just what is the truth behind this latest devastating blow to the economy, and infrastructure of Lebanon? Only time will tell. Yet key insight from Faisal Itani a Geopolitical analyst who grew up as a hard working Longshoreman at the Port of Beirut now writing for the New York Times has shared his unique perspective: 

¨By all appearances the port disaster did not involve the usual suspects — Hezbollah, Israel, jihadist terrorism or the government of neighboring Syria. The truth seems to be both duller and more disturbing: Decades of rot at every level of Lebanon’s institutions destroyed Beirut’s port, much of the city, and far too many lives. It is precisely the banality behind the explosion that captures the particular punishment and humiliation heaped on Lebanon.¨





¨It’s unclear what combination of these elements let a bomb-in-waiting sit in a warehouse for almost six years, moved fireworks next to it and allowed irresponsible work practices to be carried out nearby. But the catastrophe, while exceptionally severe, is the result of business as usual in Lebanon. The country is familiar with explosions, and it is just as familiar with disasters caused by failures of public services: a garbage crisis that dates back to 2015, an environmental catastrophe in 2019 and power outages this year that last up to 20 hours a day.
The consequences of yesterday’s explosion will be even more serious than the immediate casualties and property damage. The main grain silo, which holds some 85 percent of the country’s cereals, was destroyed. Even more, the port will no longer be able to receive goods. Lebanon imports 80 percent of what it consumes, including 90 percent of its wheat, which is used to make the bread that is the staple of most people’s diets. About 60 percent of those imports come through the port of Beirut. Or, at least, they did.
The timing couldn’t be worse. An economic crisis has devastated Lebanon for several months. The country’s currency has collapsed, a problem that is itself a result of years of mismanagement and corruption. Hundreds of thousands of people can no longer buy fuel, food and medicine. As Lebanese have seen their savings wiped out and their purchasing power disappear, a new vocabulary appeared among even my optimistic Lebanese friends and family. To describe the country, they began using words like “doomed” and “hopeless.”










World-Grain.com reports: The explosion caused significant damage to the Beirut Port Silos, which have total grain storage capacity of 120,000 tonnes. The silos consist of 48 big cells with a capacity of 2,500 tonnes per cell, 50 small cells with a capacity of 500 tonnes per cell and a suction speed of 600 tonnes per hour. Damage to the silos could be seen in news photos as well as piles of spilled grain.
In addition to damaging the country’s national wheat silos, the blast also damaged two ships that were off loading wheat at the time of the explosion and a nearby flour mill, Al-Akhbar, a local newspaper reported.
Patricia Bakalian, chief executive officer of the Bakalian Flour Mills, told the local newspaper, “the mill is not really okay, but we can deal with it tomorrow.” She said a damage assessment of the mill would be conducted.
Kinglsy Ambrose, PhD, a grain dust explosion specialist who is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, told World Grain it appears that a secondary grain dust explosion did not occur at the port. He noted that the grain silos, while damaged, were still standing following the blast.
“From the preliminary reports it seems that ammonium nitrate is the sole fuel,” he said. “Grain dust would have damaged the silos completely.”
The port conducts 60% of Lebanon’s imports and about 85% of the country’s cereals are stored in the Beirut Port Silos, according to Mena Commodities.
It is estimated that 15,000 tonnes of wheat was being stored at the Beirut Port Silos at the time of the explosion. It was perhaps fortunate that a relatively small amount of grain was stored in the silo at the time of the blast.








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