Building collapse in Choueifat: Families narrowly evade disaster

Report by Nada Andraos, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Talal Abdallah summarizes the minutes leading up to the collapse of the building where he and his family have been residing for years in the Sahra Choueifat area.
The Abdallah family, along with six other Lebanese families and six Syrian families, miraculously escaped death when the building began to collapse, and its columns fell on Sunday morning within seconds.

The Minister of Public Works and the Secretary-General of the Higher Relief Commission arrived at the collapse site. The area around the building was closed, and the debris removal process began.

Since the earthquake in Turkey, the government made a decision to conduct a national survey of buildings at risk of collapse, especially considering Lebanon has many random, illegal, and even old, "unsupported" buildings.

However, as usual, the process was not completed as it should be.

This is one of hundreds of buildings at risk of collapsing in this region or other areas. 

The danger is that even if municipalities across Lebanon commit to conducting the required survey, where will the government find the funding for this operation, whether through the Higher Relief Commission or municipalities?