Diary: Trapped mother's frantic dash to safety

Claire Brickell. Picture / Richard Robinson

Claire Brickell, from Auckland, was caught up in the fighting in Lebanon. Visiting her daughter Julia, who works for the World Bank's private-sector arm in Beirut, she witnessed the bombing and filed this diary of events

12/07/06
Last night was my daughter Julia's birthday party at the Casablanca restaurant. It was a happy occasion, someone had brought her a birthday cake and there was lots of laughter and chatting.

As a result of meeting her friend Abeya, I am going to the souk in Tripoli. Abeya is an architect and is going up on business.

At the souk I choose a bowl and wait for it to be weighed so Abeya can bargain. As we are about to leave she receives a phone call to say the Hizbollah have captured two Israeli soldiers and we should get back to Beirut as soon as possible.

The area around Tripoli is a strong Arab fundamentalist area and if there are happenings in the south then there could be repercussions in the north, she says.

We meet up with Julia. She phones the office and is told that all World Bank and International Finance Corporation missions that have not yet started are to be cancelled. She sets out to find where her five IFC people are.

Travelling back to Beirut, I comment on the lack of traffic but the road leaving Beirut is full of traffic. Julia says it is the natural response of Beirut people to leave at the slightest reason. They have been there so many times before they are taking no risks.

We decide a trip to the supermarket is in order to get more water and some provisions. Many people are doing the same thing. Whole families have trolleys piled high with the basics - rice, pasta, water, batteries.

At Julia's apartment her phone rings constantly, with friends wanting to discuss what has happened.

13/07/06
I think I have heard a noise other than the air conditioning but I am not sure. I thought I heard fireworks at 2am but it was probably anti-aircraft gunfire. I doze a bit and then I hear Julia say "Shit, the Israelis have bombed the airport."

She turns the computer on to get the news. They have hit two runways. This means the IFC people will not be getting out by air. I walk with Julia to her office. Only essential staff are working. I am not really comprehending the ramifications.

Julia says I will not be sightseeing today. She wants me to go straight back to the apartment and stay put until she calls. She phones back to say the borders are closed and there is no exit by sea either.

One of the Syrian borders may be open but you have to travel through the Bekaa valley and the Israelis have bombed some Hizbollah targets there.

The news bulletins say people need to clear the streets in South Beirut as more Hizbollah areas may be tonight's targets. There is an eerie feel to the city, a lack of horns tooting, traffic noise which normally is very much part of the Beirut scene.

14/07/06
I wake at 3.30am. I can hear a sound that does not relate to the air conditioning. I turn off the air conditioning and I can hear heavy planes flying along what seems to be the coastline, five minutes' drive from here.

The planes appear to be flying south and as one moves further south another one comes in from the north. I hear four or five planes do this routine then I hear a thud in the distance to the south. The performance is repeated, I can also hear sporadic gunfire. There is another thud again to the south.

I lie there thinking maybe I should put the air conditioning back on and that might help to muffle the sound. I do this but after five minutes decide I need to hear those planes and know what is going on. The planes continue and there is a third thud, this time the windows rattle, it is closer. The planes continue the routine and then there is a very loud thud nearby. The house shakes, the pigeons squawk.

I get out of bed and go on to the terrace. It is 10 to 6 and just beginning to get light. There is no noise now, just a plume of smoke coming up between two buildings.

Julia and I discuss where the bomb might have fallen. We learn later that it has hit the road bridge that approaches the airport. I have a heightened awareness of any sound. I am not scared or frightened, just unnerved and feeling powerless.

If a bomb is going to drop on me there is nothing I can do about it.

Julia is spending more time on the phone, ensuring that her people stay in the hotel and that they make contact every hour. It is imperative that she find some way of getting them out of Beirut.

It looks like there will a joint venture between the World Bank and the IFC to get out 12 people. There is talk of flying someone in from Washington to lead the group out. I do not ask her what is happening. The last thing she needs is her mother asking her what is happening.

There is very little street noise, just a few sirens. We have no power. She tells me we are going up into the mountains to have lunch with the French girlfriend of a friend who is feeling anxious.

She says the French Embassy have rung her this morning and at the time she thought it was to ask if she wanted to evacuate, but it was just to tell her that all July 14 celebrations have been cancelled!

There are fighter planes high up overhead. Julia says we need to get back to Beirut as the Israelis have warned that all people should be indoors half an hour before the G8 summit talks are to start in St Petersburg, about 5.30pm Beirut time.

A colleague of Julia's phones and ask if she can come and sit with us as she will not be able to make it home before 5.30. We sit on chairs in the small hallway by the kitchen where there are no windows, each with a cushion on our knee. We are to put our faces in this should we need to.

Maha has been through all this before and is finding it difficult to sit still, so we give her two packs of cards to sort out. The planes start, they are buzzing the city, going round and round. It sounds like a huge swarm of bees and it goes on for 45 minutes. It is extremely unnerving as you are not sure whether there is going to be an explosion or whether the planes will just fly away. I ask Maha why she thinks the planes are buzzing.

"Just to piss us off and let us know that they are superior to us."

Julia has problems with some of her team. The stress is beginning to tell and mobile phones and computers have become the modern-day Chinese Whispers, with rumours flying about over what the embassies are doing, which routes are open, what the World Bank should do.

She spends more time on the phone trying to reassure them that it is likely they will be leaving tomorrow.

15/07/06
Julia had heard from a Special Ops guy who has come across the border this morning. We are to assemble at the Vendome Hotel, six people from the World Bank, five from IFC and me.

At the Vendome Julia, the guide and her counterpart from the World Bank begin to organise the departure. The counterpart wants to change the rules and hire a bus to take 24 people out.

The guide is most reluctant as a bus will cause more attention and, besides, he has written orders from Washington to take 12 people out. Then there is an issue with the cars. There is much shouting and arguing; it is beginning to get nasty.

Eventually we get four cars, two Egyptian embassy cars, one World Bank car and Julia's. She has been told she must not drive us, she needs to stay in Beirut. I am in Julia's car with two IFC men from Cairo.

Saying goodbye to Julia is so hard. I know I need to go. I am a responsibility she does not need at the moment. She will have many more evacuations to organise. She tells me I am not stopping in Damascus, Syria. I am going all the way to Amman, Jordan.

We travel in convoy up over the mountain roads, turning right at the top and heading along the ridge towards the Mansaa crossing into Syria. It was not our planned route as that had been bombed again. We have been given permission by the World Bank to take this route. It has been bombed too.

Our driver gets information from the Red Cross and we see Red Cross convoys going down the road towards Beirut. The scenery is spectacular but we are not to stop. There are many other vehicles. Our driver tells other cars to keep back so it does not look like a convoy.

At the crossing we learn that only embassy cars will be going all the way to Jordan. We need to hire two taxis. There are Jordanian taxis waiting on the Lebanese side. We hire two at a cost of US$250 each. People are walking out of Lebanon with all their belongings on their backs or trailing suitcases.

It costs me US$60 for a Syrian visa. I am only going to be in the country two hours! After an hour we are on our way. Julia keeps texting to make sure we have crossed the border.

The mini bus drives us through to Amman. I get to the hotel room and I break down. I weep for myself, but mostly for all those who cannot leave Beirut. I have met some lovely people whose lives have been turned upside down and my heart goes out to them.

21/07/06
I am back home. The conflict seems so far away. Julia came out of Lebanon in a United Nations convoy, driving her own car and carrying one of her colleagues, his wife and their 2-week-old baby. They are in a hotel at the Dead Sea.

I am relieved to be home but my thoughts are still about the past events. When I was in Jordan I read everything I could about the situation. Now I am here I don't want to know. I want to stay in this little bubble. I don't want to hear of more devastation. I need to write down my thoughts as a kind of therapy.