The death toll in Libya’s coastal city of Derna has spiked to 11,300 as search efforts continue following a massive flood fed by the breaching of two dams in heavy rains, the Libyan Red Crescent yesterday.
Marie el-Drese, the aid group’s secretary-general, reporters that a further 10,100 people have been confirmed missing in the Mediterranean city. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that on Sunday night, water in Derna carried away entire families, exposing weaknesses in the oil-rich nation, which has been embroiled in war ever since a 2011 revolt that toppled long-reigning autocrat Moammar Gadhafi.
Daniel, an unusually strong Mediterranean storm, caused deadly flooding in communities across eastern Libya, but the worst-hit was Derna. As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, residents said they heard loud explosions when two dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters gushed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crashing through buildings and washing people out to sea.
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The United Nations (UN) World Meteorological Organisation said most of the thousands of deaths could have been avoided.
‘Warnings should have been issued, leading to evacuations, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties,’ it said.
The number of dead given by the Libyan emergency service roughly matched the grim estimates provided by the Red Cross and by authorities in the east, who have warned the death toll may yet rise further.
‘The death toll is huge and might reach thousands,’ said Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, three of whose volunteers were also reported dead.
Meanwhile, Libyan politician, Guma El-Gamaty said the flooding was a disaster waiting to happen.