LONDON – The death toll from devastating floods in eastern Libya has exceeded 11,000, according to the Libyan Red Crescent, as rescuers desperately try to help those who survived the disaster.
The Libyan Red Crescent said on Friday that at least 11,300 people had died and another 10,100 were reported missing.
Mediterranean storm Daniel is the cause of widespread flooding in the North African country, as it washed away entire neighborhoods and sent bodies into the sea over the weekend.
The port city of Derna was hardest hit by the collapse of two dams, which destroyed a quarter of the area. According to local officials, the city was declared a disaster area and power and communications were disrupted.
An investigation team that visited Derna on Thursday said people were desperately returning to what was left of their homes.
“What I saw there is… the situation is devastating… a lot of destruction and ruins, about 25% of the city was virtually destroyed by the flood,” said Talal Burnaz, the acting country director in Libya for the International Medical Corps, said ABC News.
People pray at the graves of flash flood victims in Derna, Libya, Friday, September 15, 2023. Yousef Murad/AP
“Whenever you see a search and rescue team, you see families standing there with tears in their eyes asking for assistance and hoping that they basically find one of their family members alive,” Burnaz said.
Burnaz said they were still pulling people out of the rubble Thursday. He saw one rescue and heard of four more when he visited the last remaining state hospital in Derna. The survivors had been trapped under rubble since the early hours of Monday morning.
Some help is available via the only road that leads to the devastated areas. Burnaz saw international search and rescue teams – from Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Spain – and drove past aid convoys from across Libya.
“Many local authorities were there – army, police, scouts, Libyan Red Cross – trying to recover bodies or find survivors under the rubble,” Burnaz said.
Doctors Without Borders deployed an emergency team from Misrata to Derna, arriving on Thursday to assess needs after Storm Daniel, although conditions were difficult as flooding divided the city into east and west.
The group’s medical coordinator for Libya said the situation was chaotic with volunteers coming from all over Libya to help, so there was a huge need for coordination.
“There are no more bodies on the streets, no more wounded people for us to see in the hospital,” Manoelle Carton, Médecins Sans Frontières’ medical coordinator for Libya, said on Friday. “It’s more the everyday health needs that are coming back up – chronic illnesses. We can clearly see a great need for mental health support. Everyone is asking about it, from the people on the street to the doctors.” Supported people, from the people who saw the events to the people who lost their entire families.
Volunteers walk past damaged houses after Mediterranean storm “Daniel” hit Libya’s eastern city of Derna on September 15, 2023.Abdullah Doma/AFP via Getty Images
Carton said the emergency response team, consisting of a logistician and three medical staff, began assessing primary health centers in the city on Friday.
“We visited three health centers in the west – one is not active because almost all the medical staff have died. The other two health centers are active with volunteer doctors from Tripoli, but they are asking for support – mainly for mental health.” “Support the people who come to the center,” Carton said.
Carton said the situation of internally displaced people was still unclear, saying the group had identified an area with about 3,000 displaced people in western Tripoli, but there were more shelters in the homes of friends and colleagues.
An area damaged by flash floods is pictured in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 14, 2023.Abdullah Doma/AFP via Getty Images
Libya’s National Center of Meteorology reported that more than 16 inches of rain fell in the northeastern town of Bayda in 24 hours through Sunday, according to flood tracking website Floodlist.
Several countries have pledged to send aid to Libya, but getting supplies to affected areas is proving difficult with many roads blocked and bridges destroyed. Rescue efforts are also hampered by the current political situation in Libya, with the oil-rich country divided between two hostile governments – one in the east and one in the west.
The head of the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that most of Libya’s flood victims could have been avoided if the divided country had had a functioning weather service.
According to Burnaz, those who have lost their homes will be accommodated in municipal buildings such as schools and universities.
“If you look at the extent of the destruction and the area destroyed, it is huge. “You can see cars stuck there on the third and fourth floors of the building… it was huge, like something never seen before,” Burnaz said.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.