Family clings to faith as search continues for man possibly hurt in Beirut explosion

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The impacts of the Beirut, Lebanon explosion are being felt 6,000 miles away in Wilmington.

Local resident Rita Griep says her brother-in-law, Joe Andoun, has been missing since Tuesday’s explosion.

Griep’s half sister, Michelle Andoun, lives in Lebanon with her husband, Joe, and two daughters.

Joe Andoun works at the Beirut Ports, where Tuesday’s explosion originated.

He captured a video of the fires that sparked minutes before the explosion while at work, sending it to his family.

After sharing the video, Andoun went radio silent.

Andoun’s wife, Michelle, immediately went to the hospital to look for him and family began desperately trying to reach him on his cell phone.

On Tuesday night at 6:45 and again at midnight Beirut time his phone was answered briefly.

“Which just gives us hope that he answered and he’s alive. No one was talking, but there was breathing, there was sound on the other end,” Griep said. “That’s kind of when we went into mega-go mode.”

Griep says the state reached out to the US Embassy in hopes of sending help with recovery efforts. Andoun’s wife and children are US citizens, but he is not so they were denied.

The family says getting information has not been easy. Griep says the Lebanese government has been slow in rescuing victims and sharing information, so they’ve been relying heavily on social media.

“You know one family sees a family in a hospital and they hear a name of another family and they’re communicating,” Griep said. “That’s where social media becomes a really powerful too.”

From thousands of miles away, Griep is helping her sister through prayer and a GoFundMe.

“I genuinely believe that all the prayers of the people that have surrounded us in this time are being heard and is making a difference,” Griep said. “And tangibly, this GoFundMe right now. I don’t think there’s anything else that we can do.”

Most of all, she is keeping hope alive.

“Until something is finalized, there’s always hope,” Griep said. “I don’t even know how to begin to start to tell you the ways that I’ve seen God show up and answer prayers. And I just believe that he’s active and working.”

Joe Andoun is working to move to the US. He was set to complete finalize his passport information the day of the explosion, a final step in moving his family to the United States.