Published: September 14, 2023
The death toll in the wake of devastating floods in Libya has soared past 11,000 in what has become one of the largest casualty counts for a natural disaster worldwide in this decade.
(MORE: What Is A 'Medicane'? Explaining The Storm That Hit Libya)
Here are some of the latest facts:
-The death toll has been increased to at least 11,300 in the city of Derna, the Libyan Red Crescent said Thursday. More than 7,000 injuries have also been reported in the city, which was home to an estimated 90,000 people.
-Thousands of people have been buried in mass graves in the days following the flood.
-More than 10,100 others are still missing, the Associated Press reported.
-At least 40,000 people have been displaced by the floods in Libya, an official said.
What's Happening Today?
People look for survivors in Derna, Libya, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023.Derna has begun burying its dead, mostly in mass graves, said eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel.
More than 3,000 bodies were buried by Thursday morning, the minister said, while another 2,000 were still being processed. He said most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
(MORE: How To Help The Survivors Of Libya Flooding, Morocco Earthquake)
Abduljaleel said rescue teams were still searching wrecked buildings in the city center, and divers were combing seawater off Derna.
Untold numbers could be buried under drifts of mud and debris, including overturned cars and chunks of concrete, that rise up to 13 feet high. Rescuers have struggled to bring in heavy equipment as the floods washed out or blocked roads leading to the area.
How Did This Disaster Happen?
As Storm Daniel pounded the coast Sunday night, residents said they heard loud explosions when two dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters gushed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crashing through buildings and washing people out to sea.
A U.N. official said Thursday that most casualties could have been avoided.
“If there would have been a normal operating meteorological service, they could have issued the warnings," World Meteorological Organization head Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva. "The emergency management authorities would have been able to carry out the evacuation.”
The WMO said earlier this week that the National Meteorological Center had issued warnings 72 hours before the flooding, notifying all governmental authorities by email and through media.
Officials in eastern Libya warned the public about the coming storm and on Saturday had ordered residents to evacuate areas along the coast, fearing a surge from the sea. But there was no warning about the dams collapsing.
'No One Expected This'
One man lost at least 13 members of his extended family. Fadellalah has yet to hear about the fate of another 20, several days after two dams burst above the Libyan coastal city of Derna, unleashing epic floods that wiped out neighborhoods and washed some of the dead into sea.
Thousands of others like Fadellalah are frantically trying to find out who survived the rain-swollen rampage.
As a powerful storm bore down on his hometown, the information technology worker in Libya’s capital of Tripoli called his family Sunday to urge them to move to higher ground.
“No one expected this,” said Fadelallah, who asked that his surname not be used because he fears reprisal from government officials and armed groups who could view his story as criticism of their efforts.
“Some of them didn’t have cars. They didn’t have a way to get out,” he said of his family.
'A Disaster In Every Sense Of The Word'
Men walk past debris of buildings caused by flash floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on Sept. 11, 2023.The startling devastation pointed to the storm’s intensity, but also Libya's vulnerability. The country is divided by rival governments, one in the east, the other in the west, and the result has been neglect of infrastructure in many areas.
“This is a disaster of every sense of the word,” a wailing survivor who lost 11 members of his family told a local television station as a group of rescuers tried to calm him. The television station did not identify the survivor.
Ahmed Abdalla, a survivor who joined the search and rescue effort, said they were putting bodies in the yard of a local hospital before taking them for burial in mass graves at the city's sole intact cemetery.
“The situation is indescribable. Entire families dead in this disaster. Some were washed away to the sea,” Abdalla said by phone from Derna.
Derna is 150 miles east of Benghazi, where international aid started to arrive on Tuesday.
Libya's neighbors, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, have sent rescue teams and humanitarian aid. President Joe Biden also said the United States is sending emergency funds to relief organizations and coordinating with the Libyan authorities and the U.N. to provide additional support.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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