Former Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis has been in touch with relatives in Beirut.
Francis who is Lebanese, says none of his relatives were injured in Tuesday's explosion but many feel they have no sense of hope and no sense of what tomorrow is going to bring.
He says Lebanese people are resilient but is not sure how much more they can take.
"The Lebanese people have survived decades and decades of war and they've been resilient," says Francis. "They've been dealing with COVID, they've been dealing with the collapse of their economy but something like this that shatters the heart of their city, it's a significant blow where they feel like their heart has been ripped out and they don't know how to deal with it anymore."
Francis says he has been on the phone with family and friends in Lebanon.
"Based on our conversations with people today, they are understandably in a very unenviable position in the sense that they feel that the world has been ripped away from them and they have no sense of hope and no sense of what tomorrow is going to bring," says Francis.
He says Tuesday's explosion was a tragedy.
"When you hear somebody in Lebanon talk, you hear it in their voice like you've never heard and it's a painful piercing if you will, that the reality that they're living," says Francis.
Francis visited Lebanon in October with his son and daughter.
He says his grandmother along with aunts, uncles and cousins still live Beirut.
Investigators have begun searching through the wreckage of Beirut's port for clues to the cause of the massive explosion that ripped across the Lebanese capital.
The investigation is focusing on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, came to be stored at the facility for six years, and why nothing was done about it.
Tuesday's explosion killed at least 135 people and injuring hundreds.