UNC Students Stranded in Lebanon
By Katie Cline

“From wherever you are in Beirut you can see the bombs dropping and fire, smoke columns usually, but if you’re not in the southern suburbs that’s how you’re affected. You hear it, and you see it, and it’s a little bit scary.”

Stephanie Preston and Ian Lye are two UNC seniors who were suppose to spend their summer interning at a Lebanese newspaper. Their time was cut short when violence erupted and they were forced to evacuate to Cyprus.

They recall scenes from Beirut.

“The city is coming back to life,” Lye says. “That first week, everything was very empty. Shops were closed, but slowly the people are realizing life has to go on, and they are coming out again.”

Preston says some bombs hit as close as three miles away.

“You get numb to it a little,” she says. “Bombs started to go off at work, and people just look at the wires to see where it hit.”

Both students say the Lebanese are unhappy about the fighting.

“The general mood, to summarize, is one of resentment against Hezbollah and Israel – both parties – for dragging them and the country into a war in which nobody actually wanted to fight,” Lye says.

Preston recounts looking over the city of Beirut:
“You could see all the jets that flew right over your head, and if they wanted to drop a bomb then that’s it, it’s a very helpless feeling,” she says.

Although they’re happy to be in a safer environment, the evacuation process is long. The students don’t know when they’ll be able to return to the US.

“No, no one can tell you,” Preston says. “They say 30 hours or 24 or 48, they don’t even know when they’re getting flights or who’s giving them flights.”