Hiro! Welcome to DU! What's going on there? If I may so ask..

[Crazy Guggenheim]

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Hiro! Check in!

Hiro...post and post again! get your psot count up! :hi:

And Welcome to DU! :D

[hiro]

2. Well....

From my family I've heard the following:

-The airport has been hit, and that's what they awoke to.
-The nearby neighborhood of Haret Hreik has been hit.
-There's a HUGE buzz of activity with government and nongovernment organizations.

From a friend I've heard that the Israeli navy is probably near the city of Sidon.

As anyone who's looked at CNN can tell, there are many other roads and bridges which have been hit, too.

The Lebanese have a remarkable tradition of getting along despite crises like this...I'm sure they'll work something out.

And you know...faced with the self-destructive actions of an organization like Hezbollah, I'm not surprised that some Lebanese I know call themselves Phoenician, and not Arab!

-H.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

3. Wow! Thanks! Have you heard of any casualties? What kind of

"buzz" is there with the organizations that you refered to?

[hiro]

4. It's official...

Not just two, but all three runways at the airport are out...

All I've heard from the actual Lebanese army is that their antiaircraft guns are actually being put to use for once...

-H.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

6. OMG. Are you able to contact your family? You have friends there I assume.

[hiro]

8. Yeah.

My brother was just online, I talked to him. He filled me in on the data, my parents were rushing out to a meeting.

Oh man....just glancing at my buddy list on MSN, all my Lebanese friends are on in greater numbers than I've seen them before.

-H.

[JCMach1]

10. I can confirm that... saw BBC footage of Israeli planes dropping flares

so they may also be using SAMs...

Was in Lebanon less than a month ago... I find this really upsetting for a country that was really pulling itself back together.

Now, the Israelis are targeting infrastructure of a recovering country... I can't tell you how I feel about all of this.

[hiro]

5. Hm...

Well, there are meetings being called all over...that's pretty much all I know. In about 10 hours or so I should have a better idea as to what the course of action will be (even in a general sense).

-H.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

7. Our thoughts are with you. Try to stay well and safe.

[Blue_In_AK]

11. Hiro, thanks for the posts.

[libnnc]

9. please stay safe, Hiro

good thoughts are with you and yours

:grouphug:

[hiro]

12. Summary

This is what I've got so far since I woke up:

*The naval blockade is in place. That cuts off people going out and supplies (fuel for electric plants, tourism, food, etc.) coming in.

*There's talk of striking the home of Hezbollah leader Hassan Saeed Nasrallah. If it does get hit...then...things have the potential of really taking a dive...

The powerplants being hit wasn't a surprise, but the TV station kind of was. I remember that station...I never liked it anyway (sucky drama shows and rather flat attempts at propaganda), but it's a shame that people probably died in the bombing.

(Seriously...back in the pre-2003 days, if I ever wanted to laugh all I had to do was watch the Iraqi satellite channel...their propaganda had ZING!)

-H.

[hiro]

13. *sigh*

I just heard from my father. He's been able to confirm the fact that there's a naval blockade, and people are expecting the powerplants to be out of commission (thanks to airstrikes) soon, as the Israeli Air Force likes to do once every few years. He's got the car topped off and ready to go. While my parents can get out via Syria, my brother is only in Lebanon on a tourist visa, and is essentially stranded. But we have lots of friends there, and they'll be more than willing to take him in, I think.

True to what I had felt, my father is still working on contingency plans. Will keep you posted.

The airport's fuel depot has been hit hard...huge explosion and all. And from what I understand it'll only be a matter of time before the Israeli Air Force hits the south of Beirut again, as well as the area of Baalbek in the Bekaa valley.

Which will continue to degrade the situation.

But given what I'm hearing about Syria, I don't know if it'd be wise to stay there. I hope my father's next step, were he to go there, would be to fly to Turkey or Cyprus. We have relatives in both countries, and from there it'd be an easy matter of getting the next flight to Paris/London/Prague/Frankfurt/Berlin/Athens/wherever, and from there to Philadelphia, New York, or Boston.

We'll see.

As for me, I went to the local Orthodox cathedral and prayed (and cried) for awhile. While I've been doing academic research all day, my stomach feels like a pit of acid.

I feel like I just want to shut myself away in my room and not come out for a long time...

-H.

[FuzzySlippers]

14. I'm hoping that all your family remains safe, hiro.

:hug:

[LSK]

15. same here

I hope everyone comes to their senses. :hug:

[hiro]

16. Update

The highway to Damascus is officially out of commission.

That leaves one way out-- northward.

-H.

[huskerlaw]

17. I'm so sorry, Hiro

Thank you for the updates. I'll be thinking of you and your family and friends.

:hug: