A week after the floods, families in Libya are still dealing with unbearable losses of their loved ones
Derna, Libya:
Grief etched on her face, 15-year-old Ibrar struggled to find the words to describe her pain after losing three friends in the massive flood that devastated her Libyan hometown.
“We will never forget that day in Derna,” she said, trying to remember how her father, along with her mother and five siblings, had saved her.
In her hospital bed she talked about the horrors of the disaster that killed thousands of people. “The number is enormous,” she said. ‘There were bodies on the ground. The cars were piled on top of the bodies.”
Torrential rain from Storm Daniel on September 10 burst two dams upstream of Derna, sending a wall of water crashing through the city center and leveling entire neighborhoods.
It was the latest catastrophe to hit the oil-rich North African country, which has been ravaged by war and lawlessness since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 ousted and killed former dictator Moamer Gaddafi.
Lying in her hospital bed at a medical center in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, Ibrar stared at a comic book and tried her best to take her mind off her memories.
“It was the first time in my life I saw something so big,” the teenager said. ‘Even during the war this was not the case.
“I am emotionally exhausted. My city has completely disappeared. Maybe the city will be rebuilt, but the people will never come back.”
‘Pressure in them’
Libyan health officials have said trauma counseling should be a priority for Derna flood survivors.
“It’s not just children who are traumatized; adults should also go to specialists,” the eastern government’s health minister, Othman Abdeljalil, said at a news conference.
Fadwa Elfartas, medical officer of the Benghazi Medical Center, said that for many, “the psychological trauma is greater than the physical trauma.
“Even the people who are not from Derna were in shock,” she said.
She said that nine days after the tragedy, people were finally taking up the center’s offer of psychological support.
“At first, some people couldn’t or wouldn’t talk, as if it was a nightmare that was already behind them,” she said.
The center has a team of 28 mental health staff – 26 women and two men – to help patients cope with the psychological trauma.
“If you introduce yourself as a mental health social worker, they speak,” said Fatma Baayo, who has worked at the center for the past 11 years.
“They need someone to listen to them to relieve the pressure inside them,” she said.
“They tell their stories, they all have a different story. Some say ‘We heard an explosion’, ‘We fled’, ‘We found water’, ‘We saved our children’… Everyone has a story to tell.”
So many are in pain
Salma al-Zawi, 40, who works with women and children at the center, said she did her best to put on a strong face.
“If I show weakness in front of a patient, she will collapse. I have to be strong to help her out of this crisis,” she said.
“We help them in every way we can: we raise their morale, we reduce their pain, we help them talk so they cry and release the pressure.”
After a demanding day of listening to relatives, she says she is happy to come home and see her six children safe and sound.
“When I come back and see that my own children are home and safe, I am grateful because so many people in my country are hurting.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
