Explosion in Lebanon has Mid-Michigan ties - ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

(10/22/12) - Last week's car explosion in Lebanon that killed a top intelligence official has ties to Mid-Michigan. So for some, foreign policy remains a top concern for more personal reasons.

Fadi Elias moved to Fenton five years ago from Lebanon. He went to school in the exact same place of where the bomb went off last Friday.

"It was a beautiful morning here then we heard in the morning about the explosion, but nobody knew anything at first," Elias said.

Being thousands of miles away from his Lebanese homeland, Fadi Elias said he felt helpless after Friday's blast in a Beirut neighborhood. "For hours we didn't hear anything, I'm trying to get a hold of my family because this is the area where I spend my college years, that's where I lived. I have my uncle who has a factory and lives in the same neighborhood."

Fadi says his uncle was missing in the hours after the explosion. "It was just chaos," Elias explained.

His uncle was later found, but as the hours passed, Fadi checked social media sites to only find even more sad news. "I went on my friends Facebook, everyone is saying RIP so I'm looking deeper, one of my friends passed away but the one is in critical condition but his mom passed away, Aunt Georgette."

Fadi said there's wide spread speculation that Syria is behind last week's attack and the uprising there could eventually spill over to Lebanon. "Everything that happens in the middle east has touched Lebanon sooner or later, because it has so many groups and it's open country."

Fadi left behind his parents and sisters in Lebanon for a better life in the states. He and his wife opened The Gatsby Grind and now considers Fenton his adoptive home. But he fears Lebanon's future relies on how the people will respond in the days ahead.

"Right now, we don't know what's happening or where the country is going. You listen to the news, it's not very positive, we have to wait and see and hope the people be patient and think with love."