Thousands of people were killed and at least 10,000 were missing in Libya as a result of floods triggered by a massive Mediterranean storm that burst dams, swept away houses, and destroyed up to a fifth of the eastern coastal city of Derna.
A top doctor in Derna said more than 2,000 people had died, but according to officials in eastern Libya quoted by local television, the death toll was over 5,000.
Storm Daniel slammed into a country that was torn apart and collapsing after more than a decade of conflict.
Journalists observed devastated neighbourhoods, houses swept out, and cars flipped on their roofs in streets covered in muck and rubble left by a wide stream after dams burst in Derna, a city of approximately 125,000 people.
According to Mohamad al-Qabisi, director of the Wahda Hospital, 1,700 people died in one of the city’s two districts and 500 in the other.
Reports discovered numerous remains on the ground in hospital corridors. People stared at the remains as they were transported to the hospital, hoping to locate missing family members.
“Bodies are lying everywhere—in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” Hichem Abu Chkiouat, civil aviation minister in the administration that governs the east, told Reuters by phone shortly after visiting Derna.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say 25% of the city has vanished.” Many, many structures have collapsed.”
According to local al-Masar television, the eastern administration’s interior minister stated that around 5,000 people died.
The storm also affected other eastern cities, including Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi. Tamer Ramadan, the chairman of an International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies mission, predicted a “huge” death toll.
“We can confirm from our independent sources that the number of missing people has surpassed 10,000,” he told reporters via video link.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, emergency response teams have been mobilized to assist on the ground.
As Turkey and other countries delivered supplies to Libya, including search and rescue trucks, rescue boats, generators, and food, heartbroken Derna residents returned home in search of family members.
Mostafa Salem, 39, of Derna, said he had lost 30 relatives. “The majority of individuals were sleeping. “No one was prepared,” Salem told Reuters.
Raja Sassi, 39, and his wife and young daughter survived the flood after water reached an upper floor, but the rest of his family died, he said.
“At first, we thought it was just heavy rain, but at midnight, we heard a huge explosion, and it was the dam bursting,” he explained.
A woman sobbed at Tripoli airport in northwest Libya after learning that the majority of her family had been killed or disappeared. Walid Abdulati, her brother-in-law, stated, “We are not talking about one or two people dead, but up to ten members of each family dead.”
“I have never felt as scared as I do now,” Karim al-Obaidi, a passenger on a flight from Tripoli to the east, said. I had lost touch with everyone in my family, friends, and neighbours.”
According to an interior ministry spokeswoman, navy forces are searching for the “many families that were swept into the sea in the city of Derna.”
A seasonal river that flows south from the highlands divides Derna, and dams typically prevent it from flooding.
A social media video shows the remains of a fallen dam 11.5 kilometres (7 miles) upstream of the city, where two river valleys converged and are now surrounded by massive pools of mud-coloured water.
“There used to be a dam,” a speaker in the video can be heard stating. Based on the photographs, newsmen confirmed the location.
Hydrologist Abdelwanees A. R. Ashoor of Libya’s Omar Al-Mukhtar University said in a study report published last year that repeated flooding of the seasonal riverbed, or wadi, was a threat to Derna. He noted five floods since 1942 and demanded quick action to assure dam repair.
“A massive flood will be disastrous for the people of the wadi and the city,” the daily warned.
Pope Francis was among world leaders who expressed grief over the deaths and destruction in Libya. US President Joe Biden expressed his sorrow and announced that Washington will give emergency cash to assistance organizations.
Libya is politically divided between east and west, and public services have crumbled since a NATO-backed insurrection in 2011 sparked years of factional conflict.
The internationally recognized government in Tripoli does not control eastern territories, but it has sent help to Derna, with at least one relief flight leaving from the western city of Misrata on Tuesday, according to a correspondent on board.
