 When Yusef Karam rushed back to the building that has been in his family for the past 70 years, he found destruction: his cousin had died when glass lodged into his face, the tenants of his 20 apartments were fleeing the ruins of their homes and the building that his father built was destroyed. "It is a complete disaster," he said. Three days after the blast, 60 volunteers were still working to remove the debris that was piled high outside the building. Just 250 metres from the blast site, Mr Karam said his family home and business looked like "an atomic bomb had gone off," when he rushed there after the explosion. His cousin was dead, another tenant was blinded and others were severely injured. As the dust settles in Beirut and the mass volunteer-led clean-up mission continues, Mr Karam is among the hundreds of thousands who cannot conceive of how they will rebuild their lives. The governor of Beirut estimates that up to 300,000 people have been left homeless by the explosion that brought the Lebanese capital to its knees on Tuesday.
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