On Tuesday, rescuers found hundreds of bodies in Libya’s eastern city of Derna, and 10,000 people were still missing after floodwaters toppled dams and wiped out entire neighborhoods.
The eastern Libyan health minister says 700 recovered bodies have been buried. Derna’s ambulance authority reported 2,300 deaths.
However, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Libya envoy Tamer Ramadan predicted a thousands-man death toll. He told a Geneva UN meeting via videoconference from Tunisia that 10,000 people were missing.
The tragic Friday night earthquake near Marrakesh made Libya “as devastating as the situation in Morocco,” Ramadan said.
Mediterranean storm Daniel devastated Derna and eastern Libya on Sunday night. Residents heard huge booms and realized dams outside the city had collapsed, causing flash floods down Wadi Derna, a river from the highlands to the sea.
The Derna water wall “erased everything in its way,” says resident Ahmed Abdalla.
Residents posted videos of mud and wreckage where the river’s rushing floods had swept away residential neighborhoods on both banks. Multi-story apartment complexes back from the river had facades ripped off and concrete floors crumbled. Water lifted cars and dropped them on top of each other.
Derna’s 90,000 residents were left alone following the accident, with eastern Libyan authorities unable to contact them. Tuesday saw most of the eastern government arrive in the city.
Local troops, government personnel, volunteers, and townspeople were searching through wreckage to find the deceased. They retrieved bodies from the water using inflatable boats.
Dozens of blanketed bodies were seen in a Derna hospital yard. Eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, said many dead were trapped under rubble or washed into the Mediterranean Sea.
“We were stunned by the amount of destruction… the tragedy is very significant, and beyond Derna and the government’s capacity,” Abduljaleel told The Associated Press from Derna.
Red Crescent crews from various parts of Libya arrived in Derna on Tuesday morning, but closed and broken roads prevented them from bringing extra excavators and other equipment.
Libya’s infrastructure is poor after more than a decade of upheaval, as two dams on Wadi Derna collapsed. Both the east and west administrations of the oil-rich nation are supported by separate militias and international powers.
Derna is ruled by Benghazi-based east Libyan military leader Khalifa Hifter.
Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya specialist at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said local officials have neglected Derna for years, debating its development but never acting.
“Maintenance was nonexistent. Everything kept delaying “stated.
A staging ground near Benghazi, 250 km west of Derna, received aid. A rescue crew and helicopters landed in Benghazi with Egyptian military authorities. The western Libyan government sent a plane with 14 tons of medical supplies and health staff to Benghazi from Tripoli.
On X, formerly Twitter, US Special Envoy for Libya Richard Norland claimed the US is working with the UN and local authorities to target official US aid. Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, and the UAE also pledged search and rescue assistance.
Eastern Libyan towns like Bayda lost 50 lives to the storm. According to Facebook footage from the Medical Center of Bayda, the main hospital, patients were evacuated after flooding.
The government also reported damage in Susa, Marj, and Shahatt. Hundreds of families fled to Benghazi and other eastern Libyan schools and government institutions.
Libya’s northeast is rich and green. The World Bank reports that Bayda, Marj, and Shahatt in Jabal al-Akhdar have one of the country’s highest average annual rainfalls.
When Libya was occupied by Italy in the first half of the 20th century, Italy developed Derna, known for its white-painted villas and palm gardens. The years after the NATO-backed rebellion that overthrew and killed Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 saw extremist groups gather in the capital.
