Employees at Rafik Hariri University Hospital have been preparing for the worst for months. Nursing staff conducted drills in the parking lot, practicing moving patients from on-call rooms to bomb-proof concrete buildings. He has also vacated one of the buildings on the hospital campus so that doctors can take their families there, in case of a massive bombing, and not have to worry about their safety.
All the practice seems to be paying off Last Friday night, dozens of bombs fell on Dahie and residents of Beirut's southern suburbs ran towards the safest place they could think of: the hospital. People came to Rafik Hariri's door asking to stay in the parking lot until the shooting stopped, but staff wouldn't let everyone in.