Beirut in numbers

Today a national action day for Beirut is being held. Nice: it has already started promisingly, with five million euros on the counter. Gigantic amounts of money, of course, but... Unimaginable damage as well.

The video went viral and was seen all over the world. On August 4, no less than 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded. This caused an explosion with — an estimated — strength of 10 percent compared to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. That explosion not only created a crater about 43 meters deep, but the rest of the city is about 20 percent completely destroyed.

As a result, the death toll has now risen to over 200, there are 6000 injured and still hundreds missing. Hundreds of thousands — an incomprehensibly high number — have lost their homes.

Among those hundreds of thousands of homeless people are an estimated 80,000 children. They can no longer go to school: 120 schools have been so severely damaged that they can no longer be used. There are fears for the future of the children; not only because many have lost their families, but also because there will be no opportunity for education in the near future and it is still very uncertain when that will be possible again.

I don't know if it's the same for you as it is for me, but numbers can always sound so abstract. 200 dead — some even say they thought there would be more. That's why I also want to show something of the people behind these numbers.

The explosion completely destroyed a hospital that specialized in care for children. A newborn baby, only a few hours old, died in this incident. The internet is full (I looked on Reddit myself) of calls from people who still cannot reach their families. Those who live abroad, for example, and have not known for a week whether their friends, family, and loved ones are still alive.

The damage in Beirut is estimated to be in the billions, and that also sounds very abstract now. But every euro really helps.