Derne is like a battlefield
Flooding caused by Storm Daniel on September 10 in Libya affected Derna the most among the cities in the country’s east.
Surrounded by the Mediterranean to the north and the hills of Cebel el-Ahdar (Green Mountain) to the south, with a valley in the middle, the damage suffered by floods in Derne is much greater than in other cities.
The valley that divides Derne in two was filled with rainwater caused by storm “Daniel” and the water level rose unprecedentedly.
It therefore put tremendous pressure on the two major dams holding water in the valley, and the flood waters caused the dams to collapse.
As houses and vehicles turned into rubble with the collapse of the dams, thousands of people lost their lives. A quarter of the city with a population of 100 thousand inhabitants was erased from the map; Agricultural lands were flooded.
The extent of the destruction that occurred when the waters receded was also revealed. In the city where the streets became a sea of mud and a car graveyard, the sea was also filled with human corpses.
IT HAS BECOME A GHOST CITY
With most of the survivors leaving the city, Derne has become a ghost town. Due to the relatively high temperature, the corpses still under the rubble began to smell bad.
In the city where there were power and water outages due to the disaster, search and rescue teams continue to recover bodies despite all the difficulties.
THE NUMBER OF DEATHS CAN REACH 20 THOUSAND
According to statements by Libyan officials, the loss of life in Derna alone reached 5,300 as of September 12.
While the Red Cross reported that the number of people missing in the Libyan flood disaster reached 10,000, it is estimated that the total number of dead or missing will reach 20,000.
30 THOUSAND PEOPLE WERE DISPLACED
The Libyan representation of the United Nations (UN) International Organization for Migration (IOM), in its report on the flood disaster, stated that the number of displaced people in Derna was estimated at 30,000, but that this figure was “probably older.”
The report states that the coastal areas of Derne were the most affected by the disaster and, according to initial determinations, 2,217 buildings were exposed to flooding.
HIGHEST LEVEL IN THE LAST 40 YEARS
Storm “Daniel”, which hit the central Mediterranean and hit eastern Libya on September 10, caused flooding in the cities of Benghazi, Beyda, Marj, Suse and Derna.
The Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdulhamid Dibeybe, declared three days of mourning throughout the country on September 11 due to the flood, and the Libyan Presidential Council asked for assistance from brother countries and international institutions for the regions damaged by the flood. the Flood.
Rainfall in the eastern regions of Libya is said to be at the “highest level in 40 years.”