When the dust settled, the crater was obvious. Where previously a warehouse stood on a dock jutting into the water, there remained ruin, debris, water, and contaminated grain. The Beirut port explosion of Aug. 4 has already claimed more than 200 lives, injured thousands, damaged thousands of buildings, and, after protests, prompted the resignation of Lebanon’s government.
What comes next hinges mostly on logistics—and on the ability of an already overstretched country to repair a critical part of its infrastructure.
