Post-Explosion Emergency Planning and Recovery in Urban Lebanon: Evaluating Crisis Response to the 2020 Beirut Port Blast

Abstract

This Working Paper analyses Lebanon’s preparedness, crisis management, and recovery after the 2020 Beirut Port explosion-a hazard which shows the extreme vulnerability of coastal cities, coupled with the frailty of disaster governance in Lebanon. The gross destruction and unstable socio-political context laid into bare systemic governance failures, institutional fragmentation, and political interference throughout the whole disaster management cycle, being preparedness and mitigation all-way through response and recovery. Based on an interpretivist qualitative single-case study on secondary data, the study revealed entrenched weaknesses in governance, coordination, communication, resource mobilisation, and resilience. Findings established that Lebanon's fragile institutions, deficient coordination, and lack of communication mechanisms rendered a timely yet equitable response almost impossible. Community-led activities helped plug some gaps but were not enough to provide adequate scope and authority to supplant formal reforms. In providing suggestions with practical application, the paper sets forth evidence-based recommendations aimed at sustaining/employing preparedness and recovery from disasters in fragile urban settings through institutional reform, enhanced inter-agency coordination, and incorporation of community resilience within formal systems thus providing a bridge over the divide between an informal coping mechanism and structured crisis governance