The Red Cross reported on Tuesday that ten thousand people are missing following unprecedented flooding in Libya, while the extent of the damage to Derna, the port city where two dams burst over the weekend, became increasingly evident.
The health minister in the administration controlling eastern Libya stated that more than 3,000 people had been confirmed dead. Othman Abdel Jalil told Al-Massar TV channel, “The number of missing people is in the thousands, and the number of dead is expected to reach 10,000.”
Entire neighborhoods in Derna have been swept away. Over 700 bodies have accumulated in the cemetery awaiting identification, and local health officials suggested that as many as 5,000 people were missing.
“The situation in the city of Derna is becoming more tragic, and there are no final statistics on the number of victims,” Jalil remarked. “Many neighborhoods were inaccessible.”
Hichem Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation, described the situation in Derna as disastrous. “Bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings. I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed.”
He added, “The final toll would be really, really big.”
Desperate citizens have been using social media to seek information about missing relatives. Many expressed frustration with the slow pace of the relief efforts, and questions were raised about previous warnings regarding the need for reconstruction of the city’s Wadi dams.
Osama Ali, a spokesperson for the Libyan Emergency Authority, stated, “All the water headed to an area near Derna, which is a mountainous coastal area … Houses in the valleys that were on the flood line were swept away by strong currents of muddy water that carried vehicles and debris.”
He also noted, “Weather conditions were not studied well, sea water levels, rainfall and wind speed, and there was no evacuation of families who could be in the path of the storm and in the valleys.”
