Libya was hit by a massive flood disaster that killed over 2,300 and left 10,000 missing, according to estimations of the Red Cross. Experts consider Libya’s catastrophe to be related to climate change, political chaos, and underinvestment in infrastructure.
Libya was reeling Wednesday from a massive flood disaster that killed at least 2,300 people when a surge of water devastated the eastern city of Derna, leaving another 10,000 missing, according to the Red Cross.
Relief missions gathered pace with Turkey, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates among the first nations to rush aid to the war-scarred country, and the UN pledging $10 million in support for survivors, including 30,000 people left homeless.
The Mediterranean coastal city of Derna was hit by a massive flash flood late Sunday that witnesses likened to a tsunami after two upstream dams burst amid torrential rains brought by Storm Daniel.
The wall of water swept away entire buildings, vehicles, and the people inside them. Many were swept into the Mediterranean, with bodies washing up on beaches littered with debris and car wrecks.
The confirmed death toll in the politically fractured North African country reached 2,300 by Tuesday afternoon, but some regional officials were quoted as giving figures more than twice as high.
Another 10,000 people were still missing, said Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
“The death toll is huge and might reach thousands,” Ramadan said Tuesday.
The country has been left divided between two rival governments, the UN-brokered, internationally recognized administration based in Tripoli and a separate administration in the disaster-hit east.
Media reports quoted an eastern-based government interior ministry spokesman as saying “more than 5,200” people had died in Derna.
Climate experts have linked Libya’s deadly disaster to a combination of the impacts of a heating planet and the country’s years of political chaos and underinvestment in infrastructure.
Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
