![]() Local authorities have neglected Derna for years. “The infrastructure could probably not cope, leading to the collapse of the dam,” he said, adding that human-induced rises in water surface temperatures likely added to the storm’s intensity. Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist and meteorologist at Leipzig University, said in a statement that Daniel dumped 15.7 inches of rain on eastern Libya in a short time. A key question was how the rains were able to burst through two dams outside Derna – whether because of poor maintenance or sheer volume of rain. Red Crescent teams from other parts of Libya also arrived in Derna on Tuesday morning but extra excavators and other equipment had yet to get there.įlooding often happens in Libya during rainy season, but rarely with this much destruction. the tragedy is very significant, and beyond the capacity of Derna and the government,” Abduljaleel told The Associated Press on the phone from Derna. “We were stunned by the amount of destruction. ![]() Many bodies were believed trapped under rubble or had been washed out into the Mediterranean Sea, said eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel. They also used inflatable boats to retrieve bodies from the water. On Tuesday, local emergency responders, including troops, government workers, volunteers and residents dug through rubble looking for the dead. “urging them to take preventive measures.” It said that Bayda recorded a record 16.3 inches of rain from Sunday to Monday. Libya’s National Meteorological Center said Tuesday it issued early warnings for Storm Daniel, an “extreme weather event,” 72 hours before its occurrence, and notified all governmental authorities by e-mails and through media. Cars lifted by the flood were left dumped on top of each other. Multi-story apartment buildings that once were well back from the river had facades ripped away and concrete floors collapsed. ![]() Videos posted online by residents showed large swaths of mud and wreckage where the raging waters had swept away neighborhoods on both banks of the river. The wall of water “erased everything in its way,” said one resident, Ahmed Abdalla. Flash floods were unleashed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions and realized that dams outside the city had collapsed. The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night. The situation in Libya is “as devastating as the situation in Morocco,” Ramadan said, referring to the deadly earthquake that hit near the city of Marrakesh on Friday night. He said later Tuesday that more than 40,000 people have been displaced. briefing in Geneva via videoconference from Tunisia that at least 10,000 people were still missing. More than 1,500 corpses were collected, and half of them had been buried as of Tuesday evening, the health minister for eastern Libya said.īut the toll is likely to be higher, in the thousands, said Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Another image showed a mass grave piled with bodies. The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to the coastal city of some 89,000.įootage showed dozens of bodies covered by blankets in the yard of one hospital. Outside help was only just starting to reach Derna on Tuesday, more than 36 hours after the disaster struck.
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