How a WhatsApp message saved humanitarian’s life after Beirut blast
Caitlin aims for return to work with WFP despite harrowing experience
Story by Rana Harb
A staff member with the World Food Programme (WFP) says she feared the worst after being left badly injured among rubble in the aftermath of Beirut’s huge explosion.
Caitlin Fowler was among five WFP colleagues injured in the explosion on Tuesday 4 August, which razed the Lebanese capital’s port and killed more than 200 people.
That day had started like any other, with Caitlin going to the office before returning to her home next to the Beirut port. As she fed her two dogs, she noticed white smoke in the distance.
She initially thought there was an outbreak of fire in the port, before a mild explosion then shook her building. Fearing it could collapse, she hurried to her bedroom to change clothes and prepared to run outside.
Suddenly, a louder explosion was heard across the city, tearing into buildings including Caitlin’s. The windows and door frame were ripped off and fell on top of her, with the ceiling, walls and nearly everything else around her also collapsing. Then the closet, where a minute earlier she had been looking for clothes, fell and broke her foot.
“I was very scared. I thought it was a bombing, so I feared it was going to be war immediately,” recalls Caitlin a few days later from her hospital bed near Beirut. “I had massive gashes on my wrists and I was just losing blood really quickly, so I got up and tried to wrap my shirt to stop the bleeding.”
Somehow she managed to escape the building, but she feared for her life: “By then I had lost too much blood,” she says. “I didn’t pass out but I couldn’t move, so I tried crawling along the glass. However, every time I bent my wrists, they would start bleeding fast so there was really nothing I could do.
Caitlin screamed for help, but nobody came. Then, she had a life-saving idea: send a voice message to the WFP Lebanon Country Office WhatsApp group. She only needed to say one word: “HELP!”
“Everyone who walked into my apartment asked how I managed to make it out.”
Caitlin trusted someone from WFP Beirut’s office would answer her call. Sure enough, the voice message reached her colleagues who quickly arranged for a WFP driver to be dispatched. Caitlin was found and admitted to Intensive Care in a city hospital.
“By the time they found me, I had lost so much blood. I literally couldn’t even lift my head. I blacked out and fainted,” she recalls. “Everyone who walked into my apartment was so confused and asked themselves how I managed to make it out,” says Caitlin.
After a few days at the hospital and some others at a hotel assisted by a nurse, Caitlin flew to her hometown in the United States at the end of August. In the meantime she received a visit from WFP Executive Director David Beasley.
She has to undergo at least one or two more surgeries and then physical therapy, but plans to go back to work as soon as possible to assist with WFP’s response to the explosion.
Lebanon has been hit hard by the triple shock of the blast, COVID-19 and an economic crisis, with severe consequences for lives and livelihoods. It imports nearly 85 percent of its food, with the bulk of trade passing through the Port of Beirut. Severe damage to the port could put further pressure on food prices which have already skyrocketed over the past year due to the economic crisis, shortages of foreign currency and the devaluation of the Lebanese pound.
Within 48 hours of the port blast, WFP had allocated food parcels for 5,000 highly vulnerable households and is preparing to scale up as needed. The organization is working with selected partners including SHEILD, Caritas, CARE and the Lebanese Food Bank to provide food parcels for communal kitchens and to vulnerable families.
WFP has started distributing emergency food assistance to up to 270,000 vulnerable people across Lebanon to help them to cope with the effects of the economic crisis and COVID-19. Among a set of other measures, this food distribution will be followed by three months of cash support, to help families cope with the additional livelihood strain that will result from the impact of the blast.
WFP also plans to gradually expand its existing cash assistance programme in to reach more people across the country, if resources are secured. This includes vulnerable Beirut residents who have been directly affected by the blasts as well as people across the country who are struggling due to the economic crisis and COVID-19 lockdown measures.
Despite her recent experience, Caitlin wants to play her part in Lebanon’s recovery, in her role as a Partnerships Officer.
She started her career in WFP headquarters in Rome with the school feeding unit in 2013, before moving to the Regional Bureau in Johannesburg (RBJ) from 2016–2019. In December 2019 she moved to Lebanon, and had spent much of 2020 on lockdown. She thought there would be no safety issues for her living in Beirut.
“I’m sure everyone is really struggling internally even if they don’t have physical injuries.”
Reflecting on the past month, Caitlin says WFP is family to her: she is grateful for amazing colleagues who kept calling on her in the aftermath, checking on her welfare and that she had everything she needed.
“I’m sure everyone is really struggling internally even if they don’t have physical injuries,” she adds. “It’s very impressive that you guys are able to work so hard and give so much despite everything. Thank you!”
