![]() “People are coming together to help those impacted,” he said. Volunteer Abdulnabi said the team came from Ajaylat, around 800 miles (1,200 km) away in western Libya. “People left their houses with nothing, they didn’t even have their underwear,” said one of the initiative’s supervisors, Mohammad Shaheen. “This affected machinery and the infrastructure of the lower level of the hospital,” the hospital’s head, Abdel Rahim Mazek, said.Įlsewhere in the town, volunteers handed out clothing and food. Doctors built makeshift dams in the street when the flooding hit to try to hold back the water, but it rose within the building. In al Badya, a coastal settlement west of Derna, the hospital was treating victims from Derna as well as its own. Another excavator cleared rubble from buildings as rescue workers paused and knelt nearby to pray. ![]() On the seafront, an excavator moved smashed furniture and cars to try to find victims underneath. ![]() We found dead bodies, of neighbours, friends and loved ones,” he said. “People came with aid from all over, and this made it easier on us, and we felt that we are not alone,” said Derna resident Hassan Awad as civil protection workers from Algeria searched the rubble of multistorey buildings in the city for survivors.Īwad pointed to a rusty pole between two buildings and said clinging to it was how his family had survived the flood which tore through their home, covering everything in mud.” A French field hospital was being prepared in footage aired by Libya’s Al Masar television. The aid being sent to Libya includes water, food, tents, blankets, hygiene kits, medicines and emergency surgical supplies as well as heavy machinery to help clear the debris, and more body bags.Įmergency response teams and aid have been deployed from France, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, with more on the way from other nations, but international officials say much more help is needed. The UN has launched an aid appeal for more than $71m. The International Organization for Migration’s Libya chief Tauhid Pasha posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the aim now was to channel all authorities “to work together, in coordination”. The oil-rich North African country remains split between two rival governments – a UN-backed administration in the capital Tripoli, and one based in the disaster-hit east. “Out of the 1,500 buildings, 891 buildings have been completely destroyed, 211 buildings have been partially destroyed, and about 398 buildings were submerged in mud.” People carry their belongings and walk amidst the debris, following a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hitting the country, in Derna, Libya on Septem Evacuation plans, aidĪs local authorities have worked to carry out a complete or partial evacuation plan for the city, the presence of two rival governments has made relief efforts chaotic and accurate information hard to come by.ĭamaged roads have made it difficult for aid to enter the city and efforts have been further hampered by the political division of Libya, which plunged into years of war and chaos after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising led to the overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The rapidly rising waters burst two upstream river dams in Derna, sending a late-night tidal wave crashing through the centre of the city of 100,000, sweeping entire residential blocks into the Mediterranean.Īccording to Badr Al-Din Al-Toumi, head of the government emergency and rapid response, “the team assigned by the government to inventory the damages stated that the total number of buildings in the city is about 6,142 buildings, of which the total number of damaged buildings is 1,500 buildings. The massive flood came as Libya was lashed on September 10 by the hurricane-strength Storm Daniel, which had earlier brought deadly floods to Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. Libyan officials and humanitarian organisations warned that the final toll could be much higher, with thousands still missing. The Libyan Red Crescent, which OCHA cited for the data, distanced itself from the report. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said approximately 11,300 people had died. The health minister of the eastern administration, Othman Abdeljalil, has said 3,252 people were confirmed dead in Derna. “In this city, every single family has been affected,” one resident, Mohammad al-Dawali, told the AFP news agency. I did not leave,” Hamad Awad, a Derna resident, told Al Jazeera. I am sitting here trying to clean and verify who is missing. Keep reading list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Flooding death toll soars to 11,300 in Libya’s coastal city of Derna list 2 of 3 Death toll in Libya’s Derna flooding could reach 20,000: Mayor list 3 of 3 Why did Derna’s dams break when Storm Daniel hit Libya? end of list
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