Firestorm by Logan Ryles EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Logan Ryles
- Language: English
- Genre: Espionage Thrillers
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 4.2 MB
- Price: Free
The earthquake struck at 3:32 a.m., local time. A forty-three-second burst of
ground-shaking mayhem, registering 8.7 on the Richter scale and ripping
through the heart of Port-au-Prince like a nuclear blast. As buildings
collapsed and concrete dust mushroomed into the sky, nobody heard the
screams of the dying. Only the incessant rumble of the earth, bringing the
Haitian capital to its knees for the second time in just over a decade—
decimating thousands of buildings, wreaking nearly twenty billion dollars’
worth of damage, and silencing the lives of a quarter million people.
All in less than a minute.
As the dust settled and wails rose above the sudden stillness, the
Western Hemisphere remained fast asleep, heedless of the agony and
heartbreak erupting only a few hundred miles away.
But on the other side of the globe, eight time zones removed from the
island of Hispaniola, somebody had been waiting for this moment.
Sheltered in a dusty hut, baking deep in the heart of desert desolation,
Abdel Ibrahim remained riveted to his satellite TV as the news broke.
Hours dragged into days while the men outside waited in silence, and
Ibrahim watched the news reels.
CNN. The BBC. MSNBC. Regional networks out of Saudi Arabia and
the UAE—all reporting on the Haitian tragedy in stunned disbelief.
Displaying footage of the pancaked apartment buildings and collapsed
office towers across Port-au-Prince. The fields of body bags and the clouds
of flies descending on the city even as international aid groups scrambled to
provide basic necessities to the reeling nation.
But hope was a forgotten word in Haiti. The baking hot Caribbean sun
poured insult onto injury, leaving people exposed to the elements without
any place to shelter. The initial efforts of first responders were complicated
by the presence of heavily armed, roving Haitian gangs who exploited the
chaos to loot retail stores and homes, opening fire on anyone who stood in
their way.
Each day the death toll climbed higher, crossing three hundred thousand
by the end of the first week. The world stood by in shock and awe,
repeating the same dazed questions over and over.
How could this happen?
Ibrahim didn’t know, and what was more, he didn’t care. The questions
of the media crackled through his aged TV set and he ignored them, waiting
patiently for the inevitable. The moment he’d waited nearly three years for.
Because one man’s tragedy is another man’s opportunity.
One man’s earthquake is another man’s wide open door.
After eight days of international scrambling, that door finally opened. It
began in New York City, with an emergency session of the United Nations.
A resolution signed by all 193 member states called for two billion dollars
of emergency aid to be poured without delay into Port-au-Prince—fresh
water, food, shelter, medical supplies, and two hundred heavily armed
coalition peacekeepers to ward off the gangs while those precious supplies
were dispersed.
The Americans would manage the operation. The Port of Savannah, the
third busiest port in the United States, would serve as the logistical hub of
all international aid shipments. Initial aid would reach Port-au-Prince within
a week, though the operation would continue for up to four months.
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