On Aug. 4, at approximately 6 p.m., two massive consecutive explosions in Lebanon’s capital took the lives of at least 200 people, and injured thousands of Beirut citizens.

  Shortly before the incident, the site of the explosion, a series of warehouses filled with highly explosive ammonium nitrate located on the port, was engulfed in flames. White smoke was seen billowing into the sky, according to a tweet from a Los Angeles Times correspondent, and reported by the BBC. The roof set on fire in a series of small explosions, which witnesses claimed sounded similar to fireworks, reported the BBC. The major blast took out nearby buildings and the port of Beirut, inhabited by over two million people. 

    Lebanon has been overwhelmed by the devastating explosion, combined with financial crisis and the coronavirus. More than 2 million people live in Beirut, and there is now a scarcity of resources in the country, because, according to Axios News, most of the city’s grain supply was impacted by the blast.

   The explosion in the capital, combined with the pandemic and economic crisis in Beirut has taken a mental, emotional and psychological toll on the Lebanese people. According to Reuters, many now suffer PTSD, nightmares and trauma which is inferred to further develop into depression, anxiety, exhaustion and addiction. 

   With the ongoing pandemic and quarantine still in full throttle, only time will tell how Beirut will recover and grow from this groundbreaking event. Not only will Lebanon need to rebuild all that was destroyed, but also change and improve the ways the country runs to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future.