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'Catastrophe' in Beirut: Death toll rises, 200,000 homeless as blast leaves city in disarray
NBC via Yahoo ^ | August 5th, 2020 | Adela Suliman and Yuliya Talmazan and Charlene Gubash and Tim Stelloh and Mustafa Kassem and Courtne

Posted on 08/05/2020 8:54:56 PM PDT by Mariner

A huge rescue operation and an international aid effort got underway Wednesday, less than 24 hours after much of Beirut was buried by rubble and choked by smoke in a colossal explosion Tuesday afternoon.

Lebanese health minister Hamad Hasan said 135 people have been killed and 5,000 injured in the explosion. Dozens of people are still missing.

Those figures look set to rise with hospitals overwhelmed and victims still trapped underneath debris.

"There is no word to describe the horror of the catastrophe that occurred in Beirut yesterday," Lebanese President Michel Aoun said during an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the Lebanese News Agency reported.

"I extend my heart and feelings to the families...and I ask God to heal the wounded, heal the broken hearts, and provide us with all the energy and determination to stand together to confront the painful burns that have scarred the face of Beirut."

Aoun thanked emergency workers and officials and vowed to conduct a full investigation into the cause of the deadly blast, which is still not clear.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ammoniumnitrate; beirut; lebanon
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To: centermass_socrates

Or the Halifax, Nova Scotia blast of 1917, which was infinitely more deadly and destructive than the Texas City explosion.


41 posted on 08/06/2020 1:13:39 AM PDT by CrimsonTidegirl (Freedom, Freedom, We will not obey!- “Breakdown”- The Alan Parsons Project)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

Agreed.


42 posted on 08/06/2020 1:39:35 AM PDT by Chickensoup (Voter ID for 2020!! Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: Mariner

BS...I saw the pictures...MSM by saying there are homeless, have concluded either the evil joos or PDJT is responsible...if you want facts, read Carlos Osweda’s Twitter feed.


43 posted on 08/06/2020 3:33:08 AM PDT by CincyRichieRich ( "Where they delete tweets, they will in the end also delete people."-unseen1_unseen)
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To: Mariner
There's a lot of vacant warehouse space in our big cities where ammonium nitrate can be stored.😎
44 posted on 08/06/2020 3:57:47 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Fai Mao

The yeild of AN is 0.23 kt per ton. That would mean that amount of AN that exploded would have to 1.1/.23 = 4.8 tons. Since AN is not a good bomb material, it would be unlikely that anything like 100% of the material would explode, much of it would scatter. There is some inconsistency here.


45 posted on 08/06/2020 4:08:38 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets ("Women's intuition" gave us the Salem witch trials and Kavanaugh hearings. Change my mind.)
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To: CrimsonTidegirl

Or the Port Chicago, California blast of 1944 that leveled the place and killed hundreds.


46 posted on 08/06/2020 4:10:47 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: Secret Agent Man

I read it was a ‘Russian ship full of fertilizer that had been stuck there in the port for 13 years


47 posted on 08/06/2020 4:48:34 AM PDT by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: Mariner

What about Covid? Aren’t the hospitals Inundated with Covid patients? /s


48 posted on 08/06/2020 6:46:14 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: Bookshelf

I’ve never heard of that particular blast. I’ll have to look it up.

Thanks.


49 posted on 08/06/2020 1:18:24 PM PDT by CrimsonTidegirl (Freedom, Freedom, We will not obey!- “Breakdown”- The Alan Parsons Project)
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To: caww

Was this AN stockpile capable of spontaneous detonation, similar to a grain silo?
If not, what was the detonating agent?
And was this blast without fuel oil?


50 posted on 08/06/2020 1:39:16 PM PDT by citizen (Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars. A,ll the other genders you make up are from Uranus.)
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To: Fai Mao

You are mixing scales.


51 posted on 08/06/2020 3:27:21 PM PDT by Cuttnhorse (Nothing dies harder than a lie that people want to believe)
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To: Seruzawa
300,000 homeless yesterday. 200,000 today. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.

President Trump must have sent FEMA!

52 posted on 08/06/2020 3:29:59 PM PDT by Cuttnhorse (Nothing dies harder than a lie that people want to believe)
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To: Cuttnhorse

We’re supposed to help them not regulate them to death!


53 posted on 08/06/2020 3:34:15 PM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: citizen

I believe that Ammonium Nitrate requires a fairly high temp to detonate or a severe shock (e.g. blasting cap), but until it reaches that temp it will burn rather energetically.

I doubt that there was fuel oil mixed with it, but who knows what else was stored nerby and could have been unintentionally? mixed into some of the bags of pelletized Ammonium Nitrate.

Once I saw reports that repairs had been carried out on the door that day, I viewed the most likely scenario as careless worker improperly disposing of a cigarette or not properly shielding some procedure that threw sparks starting a fire, and no one who knew how to put out the fire able to extinguish it before detonation temp was reached. Ammonium Nitrate is both fuel and oxidizer for the fire, thus very hard to extinguish.


54 posted on 08/06/2020 3:40:08 PM PDT by Fraxinus (My opinion, worth what you paid.)
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To: Cedar

>>>The local people in Beirut think Israel did the bombing/explosion<<<

My Sympathy Meter will swing back to ZERO if they push this Crappola.

Has the Squad commented on this yet?


55 posted on 08/06/2020 3:44:28 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Kill a Commie for your Mommy.)
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To: coloradan

“Ammonium nitrate is less energetic than TNT, such that the explosion of 2750 tons, i.e. 2.75 kt, of the former has “only” the blast energy of 1.1-1.2 kt of TNT.”

Personal experience verifies your statement about ANFO having less punch than dynamite.

In the ‘80s I worked in a quarry mine where the SOP was to plug a stick of dynamite with a blasting cap and tie the electrical wire around the stick and lower it down into the hole 50’deep. Then drop another stick in on top and if you didn’t hear a splash we’d fill the rest of the hole with ANFO. Our normal shots would just crumble the rock face and there would be very little if any flyrock.

One time it rained before the shot and the mine boss said to drop sticks in until you didn’t hear a splash anymore. Some holes got 8 sticks and this was a 50 hole shot. The blast was ridiculous and blew fly rock 150+ yards away punching holes in storage shacks and ripped the conveyor belt that fed the crusher.

I was under a loader bucket and got splashed when a chunk of flyrock landed in a puddle a few feet away.


56 posted on 08/06/2020 3:51:43 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Fraxinus

I see. So it likely burned heartily for a while then came the explosion of the remaining stock. The men may not have known the danger, so to run away.


57 posted on 08/06/2020 5:19:21 PM PDT by citizen (Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars. A,ll the other genders you make up are from Uranus.)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

#37 The Saudi’s have already destroyed Mecca. They knocked down all the ancient buildings associated with Mohammad and anything Islam or Christian and put up hotels and highrises.
It is a Disneyland of stampeding muslims every year.

Time - Saudi Arabia Bulldozes Over Its Heritage
https://time.com/3584585/saudi-arabia-bulldozes-over-its-heritage/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_early_Islamic_heritage_sites_in_Saudi_Arabia


58 posted on 08/07/2020 2:30:09 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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To: minnesota_bound

More
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-photos-saudi-arabia-doesnt-want-seen-and-proof-islams-most-holy-relics-are-being-demolished-in-8536968.html


59 posted on 08/07/2020 2:35:01 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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