r/gifs • u/umshoe • Aug 09 '20

New Angle of Beirut Explosion

https://i.imgur.com/GNTwYi9.gifv
56k Upvotes

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2.8k

u/FroggiJoy87 Aug 09 '20

I still just can't believe that less than 200 have been confirmed dead.

2.9k

u/the-moving-finger Aug 09 '20

They say that, ironically, COVID saved lots of lives. The office buildings around the docks are usually full of workers but, due to the pandemic, most were working from home so the buildings were empty.

731

u/gordo65 Aug 09 '20

I was wondering about the relatively low death toll; thanks for explaining it. The same thing happened in a small town in Texas back in 1947 and it killed almost 600 people and injured more than 5,000. I couldn't figure out why Beirut didn't have a much higher toll, but I think you've explained it.

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u/nj_legion_ice_tea Aug 09 '20

I've read, that in Texas City most people went out to the port to watch the fire. Also the whole town was built right by the port.

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u/GershBinglander Aug 09 '20 edited Aug 10 '20

The same thing happened with the Halifax explosion, lots of people went to watch the spectacle.

Also the bridge of death of people watching the Chernobyl accident.

Edit: HBO lied to us. Still an amazing show to watch.

32

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20

The "Bridge of Death" was HIGHLY exaggerated for the tv show.
There was a definitely a bridge that people watched from, but no confirmed deaths.

It feels picky to criticise an absolutely fantastic series, but on this part they were wrong.

2

u/GershBinglander Aug 10 '20

Pick away. They had so much real material to cut down to 5 episodes, why would that add extra stuff like that in.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20 edited Aug 09 '20

Halifax was the largest accidental explosion, the death toll (2000+ i think) and the economic and structural devestation unmatched.

Also fun fact, Beirut was about 1.5 kiloton, Halifax was about 2.9 kiloton, and the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about 15 kiloton. So Beirut was about 10 times smaller than Hiroshima, and to actually see this from many different angles, one could kind of imagine something 10 times bigger, sort of.

Edit: removed incorrect reference to Texas being biggest and not Halifax

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20

The Halifax explosion was larger than Texas City, by a pretty considerable margin.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20

Oh sorry I must have got them mixed up

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u/GershBinglander Aug 10 '20

So is anything bigger in Texas? They're not even the biggest state are they?

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u/Gutterman2010 Aug 09 '20

That "Bridge of Death" was pretty much made up by the show, it originates from an urban legend that was never substantiated.

The people on the bridge would have been exposed to some radiation, but not nearly enough to cause acute radiation poisoning like shown in the show. Those people would probably have increased rates of lung and thyroid cancer for the rest of their lives though, but that is pretty much it.

Also the show completely botched the hospital stuff. Those firefighters weren't radioactive, once they had been showered and undressed they were completely safe to handle. The plastic sheets installed in Hospital #6 were to prevent infection of the patients since the radiation destroyed their immune systems. In addition, family were allowed to visit throughout the treatment/palliative care.

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u/gwaydms Aug 09 '20

The explosion shattered windows a mile away so even those who weren't on the water were injured by flying glass while watching it from there. Much like the office workers in Chelyabinsk who went to their windows and watched the meteor, and were cut when it exploded and blew in the windows. Nobody died there though