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- The Red Crescent in Libya now estimates 11 300 people have died in and since flooding.
- The mayor of Derna believes the total could be some 20 000.
- Recovered bodies are mostly being buried in mass graves.
The death toll in Libya’s coastal city of Derna has soared 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 said.
Marie el-Drese, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Libya secretary-general, said another 10 100 people are reported 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.
The mayor of Derna, Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi, said the tally could climb to 20 000 given the number of neighbourhoods that were washed out.
The flooding swept away entire families in Derna on Sunday night and exposed vulnerabilities in the oil-rich country that has been mired in conflict since a 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
“Within seconds the water level suddenly rose,” recounted one injured survivor who said he was swept away with his mother in the late-night ordeal before they both managed to scramble into an empty building downstream.
“The water was rising with us until we got to the fourth floor,” the unidentified man said from his hospital bed, in testimony published by the Benghazi Medical Center.
“We could hear screams. From the window, I saw cars and bodies being carried away by the water. It lasted an hour or an hour and a half – but for us, it felt like a year.”
The storm also killed about 170 people in other parts of eastern Libya, including the towns of Bayda, Susa, Um Razaz and Marj, Health Minister Othman Abduljalil said.
The dead in eastern Libya included at least 84 Egyptians whose remains were transferred to their home country on Wednesday. More than 70 came from one village in the southern province of Beni Suef. Libyan media also said dozens of Sudanese migrants were killed in the disaster.
Bodies buried, mostly in mass graves, as search continues
Derna has begun burying its dead, mostly in mass graves, said Abduljalil.
More than 3 000 bodies were buried by Thursday morning while another 2 000 were still being processed. Most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
Abduljalil said rescue teams are still searching wrecked buildings in the city centre, and divers are combing the sea off Derna.
Untold numbers could be buried under drifts of mud and debris, including overturned cars and chunks of concrete that rise up to 4 metres (13 feet) high. Rescuers have struggled to bring in heavy equipment as the floods washed out or blocked roads leading to the area.
“This disaster was violent and brutal,” said Yann Fridez, head of the Libya delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which had a team in Derna when the floodwaters hit.
“A wave seven metres high wiped out buildings and washed infrastructure into the sea. Now family members are missing, dead bodies are washing back up on shore, and homes are destroyed.”
ICRC is distributing 6 000 body bags to help authorities and the Libyan Red Crescent Society “ensure dignified treatment of the dead”.
The World Health Organization and other aid groups on Friday called on authorities in Libya to stop burying flood victims in mass graves.
“We urge authorities in communities touched by tragedy to not rush forward with mass burials or mass cremations,” said Dr Kazunobu Kojima, medical officer for biosafety and biosecurity.
Poor maintenance, bad infrastructure
Access to Derna remains severely hampered as roads and bridges have been destroyed and power and phone lines cut to wide areas, where at least 30 000 people are now homeless.
The United Nations said, “with the collapse of most roads, the municipality [of Derna] is urging relevant authorities to establish a sea corridor for emergency relief and evacuations”.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization chief Petteri Taalas said many deaths could have been avoided if early warning and emergency management systems had functioned properly in the war-scarred country.
With better coordination, “they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties,” said Taalas.
Earlier this week, Derna’s Deputy Mayor Ahmed Madroud told Al Jazeera the dams had not been properly maintained since 2002.
Anas El Gomati, founder and director of the Sadeq Institute, blamed the eastern authorities for neglecting the city’s critical infrastructure and maintenance.
“Corruption and financial mismanagement are the cause behind failing infrastructure that has plagued Libya for decades,” he said.
“But the successive regimes are culpable, and it is the military investment authority that has cannibalised Libya’s public infrastructure in the east, destroying it to be smuggled and sold for scrap metal.”
