On 14 September Libya's city DERNA: As survivors looked for loved ones who had been swept away by floodwaters, Libyan authorities ordered an investigation on Thursday to determine whether human error was to blame for the thousands of people killed in the nation's greatest natural disaster in the nation's history.
On Sunday night a flood caused by a strong storm shattered dams, hurtling down a seasonal riverbed that divides the eastern city of Derna and washing multiple-story buildings with sleeping families inside into the sea. Officially confirmed death tolls have been uneven. All number in the thousands and lists of the missing include thousands more.
According to Derna Mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi the dead toll in the city may already be between 18,000 to 20,000. He expressed concern that an epidemic might now spread over the city due to the huge number of bodies under the wreckage and in the water.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation if Libya a failing state for more than ten years had a functioning weather bureau in place the significant loss of life might have been prevented.
In Geneva WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalashe said They could have issued warnings if there had been a normally operating meteorological service. The citizens may have been evacuated by the emergency management authorities. Moreover we could have prevented the majority of human casualties.
Other critics drew attention to earlier warnings such as a research report written by a hydrologist and released last year that described the city's sensitivity to flooding and the urgent need to repair the dams that shielded it. The three member council that serves as the presidency of Libya's internationally recognised Government led by Mohammad al Menfi announced on channel X that the council had requested the attorney general to look into the catastrophe.
Along with anyone who delayed aid he said those whose acts or negligence led to the dam's downfall should be held liable. Driver Usama Al Husadi a 52 year man had been looking for his wife and five children ever since the tragic event.
He was distressed and hide his head in his hands as he searched for them on foot. He said he had tried in all the hospitals and schools but remain unlucky. Husadi who had been at work on the stormy night called his wife's cellphone once more. It was off.
He claimed that there is atleast 50 members of his family who were either dead or missing. The night of the storm Wali Eddin Mohamed Adam a 24 year old Sudanese brick factory worker who lives on the outside of Derna awoke to the boom of the water. He hurried to the city core only to discover it was vanished. He claimed that nine of his coworkers died and that 15 more had lost their families.
He claimed that everyone was carried away by the valley into the sea. May Allah grant them heaven and have mercy on them. Rescue teams from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and Tunisia all arrived.
Turkey was one of the nations that supplied a ship with supplies to set up two field hospitals. Italy placed three planes with personel and supplies as well as two navy ships that had trouble unloading because Derna's port was so jam packed with wreckage that it was all but useless.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) described the floods as a "calamity of epic proportions" and said that it will release $2 million from its emergency fund to assist the affected. It stated that through its logistics centre in Dubai it would dispatch medical, surgical and emergency supplies.
Political divisions in a nation of 7 million people that has been at war on and off. Without a functioning national government since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011 the situation is impeding rescue efforts.
In the west, there is a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli that is recognised internationally. In the east a separate government is in place and is ruled by Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army which failed in its attempt to seize Tripoli after a brutal 14 month siege that ended in 2020. Derna has been especially turbulent having been ruled by a number of armed Islamist organisations including Islamic State at one stage before being uncomfortably brought under Haftar's control.
It was unusual for GNU ministers to visit Benghazi in the east on Thursday to express their support and talk about relief operations after the eastern assembly rejected their administration the previous year. The previously heavily settled city centre of Derna was now a broad flat crescent shaped of dirt with stretches of mud as seen from high points above Derna.
On Thursday all that remained of the dam that had previously served as the city's defence was wreckage and a washed out road. The wadi or desert riverbed had already reverted to a trickle. Clothing, toys, furniture, shoes and other items that had been washed from homes by the flood were all over the beach below.
Streets were littered with hundreds of destroyed cars many of which were on their sides or roofs, uprooted trees and thick mud. One vehicle got stuck on the second floor balcony of a demolished structure. Engineer Mohammad Mohsin Bujmila a 41 year old man stated I survived with my wife but I lost my sister. Most of the destruction happened downtown where my sister resides. Her son and husband bodies were discovered and we buried them. Additionally he discovered two strangers dead in his flat. As he was speaking a nearby Egyptian search and rescue team found his neighbor's body.
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