Beirut Blast Survivors Shared Their Stories With Us, Years Later
Disclaimer : The article contains descriptive content on the topic of the Beirut Port explosion that some readers may find triggering. Reader's discretion is advised.
For many people in Lebanon, life has paused on August 4th, 2020 , and the time is still at 6:07, for the horror of that moment and day was nothing short of apocalyptic.
The mass grief, the lasting trauma, and the moral devastation with all that it entails have prevailed to date, as 961News came to hear directly from survivors.
For over 730 days, the survivors of the Beirut Blast and the families of the victims are still waiting for justice to no avail, their demands echoing in the darkness of negligence and the intransigency to protect the perpetrators.
Today, as marches speak for the victims on the streets of Beirut, survivors relive the horror of that moment carved in their minds and bodies.
961News talked to some of them, and here are their stories.
Marie-Therese Hanna
Courtesy of Marie-Therese Hanna
As usual, Marie-Therese was sitting in her room doing her work on the laptop. As she heard the sound of the first explosion, the windows concussed, but she thought it was one of the frequent sounds near the port.
When she got up to look from her home’s window in Gemmayze, the second blast exploded. All she did was turn around and try to escape.
“When I tried to open my eyes, I thought I was dreaming. All I could see were the collapsed pieces on my body. I closed my eyes, assuming that I am still dreaming," Hanna said.
Because of the collapsed pieces on her lungs, Marie-Therese could barely breathe. When she tried to get up, she realized that one of her arms and one of her legs were under the rocks.
“All I can remember is that I was continuously praying. As I pray, I could feel more power to get up.”
“When I stood and found out that I didn’t lose any part of my body. I looked upwards and told Jesus 'thank you',” she added.
Courtesy of Marie-Therese Hanna
She could hardly walk. But all she wanted was to escape. She went to the streets barefoot, her eyesight almost gone, her leg was bleeding and she was gasping all the time.
“I was struggling, and I gave up at that moment. I opened my arms and started telling God 'I am waiting for you to come and take me.'”
Fortunately, there was a man who came later and took her to the ambulance.
After she regained consciousness, she started looking for a phone to call her family.
Although she was trying to stay awake, her situation was getting worse.
“I opened my eyes and saw a 15-year-old boy trying to wake me up, and there was Motasem Al-Nahar”.
The young Syrian actor took her in his car and drove her to Al-Hayek Hospital from where she called her sister and boyfriend.
Courtesy of Marie-Therese Hanna
“My sister went from Verdun to my apartment walking. She thought I was under the rubble. But when she found the prints of my bloody hand on the walls and my flip-flop she knew that I was still alive."
Marie-There’s suffering continued after the blast. She couldn’t get up from her bed for four months. Her body was full of broken glasses as she herself removed a 25cm piece of glass from her leg without anesthesia.
“I’m a dancer and, to date I can’t dance the way I used to before the accident.”
She still has glass in her legs because she was barefoot, which does not show in the scanner. And the pieces cannot be removed from her leg.
“I went to many therapists, but no one helped me. A month ago, I started recovering. I always have panic attacks; I cannot see blood, hear loud sounds like airplanes or even see broken glasses.”
Tatiana Hasrouty
Tatiana was with her mother, her pregnant sister, and her husband at their house in Sin El-Fil when the Beirut port blasted. “I was sleeping on my bed when I first felt an earthquake. I rushed to my mom and told her I felt the quake since I never felt one before.”