Massive Blast in Lebanon

8enotto said:
The local news did before and after satellite pictures tonight. The exact location of the warehouse is a seaside hole full of water. The entire port facility is utterly destroyed, most buildings are just gone.

Amazing power in that explosion.
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There's a lot of comparisons being drawn to the Fort Stikine explosion in 1944, which also occurred in a harbour ('The Day it Rained Gold').
You can find pictures of the effects of that explosion on Bombay/Mumbai here, here, here and here.
 
catsmate said:
Captain_Swoop said:
Something similar happened to tanker on the Tees a few years ago. It was stopped from sailing after an inspection as the crew conditions were below standard and the general condition of the ship was dangerous. It sat on the Tees for about 18 months.
Also a ship was stuck in Great Yarmouth for nearly 2 years after the owners went bust.
In that case the captain stayed aboard alone to stop anyone claiming 'salvage' on it while ownership was worked out.

It's not all that rare and is becoming more common.
International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization reports nearly 5,000 seafarers were abandoned on their vessels in nearly 400 separate incidents between 2004 and 2018.
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Too bloody true. However national governments are reluctant to act.
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One of the best examples; The Yellow FleetWP of the Suez. Fifteen ships and their crews stuck on board their ships for eight years in the middle of the Suez Canal. Very odd and interesting story.
 
quadraginta said:
One of the best examples; The Yellow FleetWP of the Suez. Fifteen ships and their crews stuck on board their ships for eight years in the middle of the Suez Canal. Very odd and interesting story.
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:thumbsup::) Indeed one of my collection. I rather like the stamps they issued.
 
Yeah, I was also thinking ‘get away from the glass’ with these onlookers. Ever since reading about Halifax I’ve hoped my instinct if I ever see a shockwave comin’ will be to tuck up my eyes.
 
Lithrael said:
Yeah, I was also thinking ‘get away from the glass’ with these onlookers. Ever since reading about Halifax I’ve hoped my instinct if I ever see a shockwave comin’ will be to tuck up my eyes.
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I remember that happened with the embassy bombings in Africa, too. It seems to be a common reaction. I had a friend who lost an eye in New York because he looked at a loud sound (bus running over a bottle) and got glass in his eye. I hope I wouldn't look, either, but human nature being human nature it would probably be a reflexive thing.
 
catsmate said:
Most AN is manufactured, shipped and used quite safely.
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That has nothing to do with it.

They had been notified numerous times that the warehouse store was dangerous.

There are historical incidents of tremendous explosions under similar circumstance.
 
The derail about the wealth of the RCC and its response to disasters has been split to here.
Posted By: Agatha
 
Lithrael said:
Yeah, I was also thinking ‘get away from the glass’ with these onlookers. Ever since reading about Halifax I’ve hoped my instinct if I ever see a shockwave comin’ will be to tuck up my eyes.
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It seems like everyone thought that the explosion had already happened, not realizing the fireworks warehouse was next to the AN warehouse.
 
An explosion like that is like a 9+ earthquake: you can't design for it, you can't anticipate it.

Can anybody learn from it? Let's hope so.
 
sackett said:
An explosion like that is like a 9+ earthquake: you can't design for it, you can't anticipate it.

Can anybody learn from it? Let's hope so.
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I get your meaning, just a very localized earthquake. The northern parts of the mMiddle East and adjacent Eastern Europe is prone to quakes so I expect the newer buildings in Beirut are designed with some level of quake resistance, but still there are limits as you say. The grain silos right next to the explosion were certainly solidly built.
 
Puppycow said:
For pity sake get away from those glass doors!

https://twitter.com/c0casansbulles/status/1291498567086084098
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After the initial shock of seeing how violently the adult inside the room is hurled across the room, I'm puzzled that one of the youngsters on the balcony doesn't even get knocked off her feet. Is it just that luckily by standing slightly to the side of the doorway, she avoids being picked up and thrown by the pressure wave driving into the room?
 
I used a 9 quake as an example of a disastrous but rare event, so rare that civil engineers don't try to build structures to withstand one, for cost reasons. Fukushima had a lucky outcome, and that's all you can hope for.

AN accidents are also rare events, and also overwhelmingly expensive to design against-- if you even could. But unlike earthquakes, they can be prevented, or at least made even rarer, by safer practices. The severity of AN explosions can certainly be lessened by limiting the amounts stored in a single location.

How's that for laboring at the obvious? Now let's tackle the problem posed by such organizations as Lebanon's Ministry of Corruption. How are we to control entrenched greed and cynicism? How do we reason with the cheap-suit-and-a-pistol crowd?

Especially when they seem to be on the rise.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
That has nothing to do with it.
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Sigh, it has lot to do with it. AN is produced, moved and used on a vast scale. Most of that activity is entirely safe.

Skeptic Ginger said:
They had been notified numerous times that the warehouse store was dangerous.
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Yes, and without the fire (which had noting to do with the AN) there would have been no explosion.

Skeptic Ginger said:
There are historical incidents of tremendous explosions under similar circumstance.
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As there are for flour, natural and other hydrocarbon gases, petroleum.....

If you take every significant (>1 tonne) AN accident in the past hundred years, and assume the Beirut death toll triples, you get the US road accident fatalities, for one average month.
 
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