Power Plant Airstrike Leaves a Noxious Mess

"Instead, our resources, time and ideas are consumed by this," he said in a telephone interview, shortly after leaving the Jiyah plant. "I am actually putting out fires."

Ghada Mitri, a spokeswoman at the Environment Ministry, said that countries with expertise in limiting damage from oil fires, such as Kuwait, were dispatching equipment, but "their crews are on standby until the security situation improves."

Officials estimate that a cleanup would cost close to $50 million and last three to four weeks.

Hatjian estimated the loss from the strike on Jiyah to be about $210 million, in addition to about $2 billion worth of damage that Israeli airstrikes have caused to Lebanon's bridges and roads.

When the plant went off-line, hospitals and other emergency facilities in the region switched to backup generators. With Israel's naval blockade of Lebanon's coast continuing, officials cautioned that local fuel supplies could run out in 10 days.

Nadim Cortas, dean of the medical school at the American University of Beirut Hospital, cited concerns that Israeli airstrikes could shut down power in the capital as well.

"The most critical supply to the hospital is fuel," he said. If the power grid goes down, the hospital's own supply "will only last for 10 days and the hospital will have to shut down," he warned. The 420-bed hospital is one of the top medical institutions in the region.

On Saturday, Hatjian said that the controlled burn-off of fuel could continue for several more days. "We are moving from sea to air pollution," he warned. "I am hoping against hope that the fog and smog of emissions will blow out to sea."