In early October 2020, U.S. Ambassador Kip Tom joined a gaggle foreign journalists and World Food Program (WFP) leadership on a tour of Lebanon. While making his way across a mangle of rebar, wire and concrete rubble Tom could smell the familiar odor of spoiled grain oozing through the air.
As he stepped onto a pile, at the foot of a decimated concrete elevator, he noticed one small pink sandal poking through the mess. He stopped. Tom picked up the shoe and, like any farmer would, grabbed a handful of the now useless grain, before sinking into the slope. His eyes scanned the scene as his mind wandered back to the moment that sandal may have been lost.
“I have never seen anything like it,” remembers Tom.
His view, barely two months removed, was the epicenter of what’s been called one of the largest non-nuclear blasts known to mankind. An ammonium nitrate bomb created from old, carelessly stored fertilizer killed hundreds of people on August 4, 2020. 7,000 people were wounded and more than 300,000 were displaced. The blast, based near the port of Beirut also decimated import grain storage for the city.
“We saw 600’- to 700’-long frigates that were pushed up out of the water and on to the dock from the explosion,” Tom says. “It really crippled their ability to move grain and foodstuffs into the country.”
In his ambassador role, Tom helped to bring American resources to those in need. That included finding and securing port space and making sure survivors had food during the cleanup and transition.
“The Lebanese people were very grateful for the United States, our support and our reaction,” said Tom. “As usual we respond with capacity, and compassion which is one thing Americans do best.”
