Bodies washed up in eastern Libya on Wednesday.
Libya:
Bodies washed up in eastern Libya on Wednesday, raising the death toll as a storm swept entire neighborhoods into the sea, leaving thousands already confirmed dead and many thousands more missing.
Parts of the Mediterranean city of Derna were swept away by the flood, which was unleashed after rain from a powerful storm burst dams above the city on Sunday night. Entire multi-storey buildings were swept away with sleeping families inside.
The “sea is constantly dumping dozens of bodies,” Hichem Abu Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation in the government that runs eastern Libya, told Reuters by phone.
“We have counted more than 5,300 deaths so far, and the number is likely to increase significantly and may even double as the number of missing people also reaches thousands,” he added.
Tens of thousands of people had been left homeless, he said, appealing for international help and adding that Libya did not have the experience to deal with the aftermath of such a disaster.
Officials say at least 10,000 people are feared missing or dead, although the confirmed death toll so far varies. Tariq Kharaz, a spokesman for eastern authorities, said 3,200 bodies had been recovered and 1,100 of them had yet to be identified.
At a hospital in Derna on Tuesday, dozens of bodies wrapped in blankets were placed on the floor in hallways or outside on the sidewalk so residents could identify them.
Mustafa Salem said no one was found alive from his entire extended family, who lived in houses close together near the river valley, opposite a mosque.
“People were sleeping and no one was ready,” he told Reuters. “We have lost thirty people so far, thirty members of the same family. We have not found anyone.”
At least 30,000 people have been displaced in Derna, according to the UN migration agency, the International Organization for Migration.
“The most important thing for the search teams is that we need bags for the bodies,” Lutfi al-Misrati, the director of the search team, told Al Jazeera in a telephone interview.
The destruction was clearly visible from high points above Derna, where the densely populated city center, built along a seasonal riverbed, was now a wide, flat crescent of earth with patches of muddy water glistening in the sun, and all buildings had been swept away.
As Reuters was on its way back to the city on Wednesday, aid convoys and bulldozer trucks were seen entering the city.
Satellite photos of the city before and after the disaster showed that what had been a narrow waterway through the city center was now a wide scar, and all the buildings that lined it were gone. Buildings were also swept away in other parts of the city.
Rescue operations are complicated by deep political rifts in the country of seven million, which has no strong central government and has been at war on and off since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
An internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) is based in Tripoli, in the west, while a parallel government, including Derna, operates in the east.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, based in Tripoli, called the floods an unprecedented catastrophe. The head of Libya’s presidential council, Mohammed al-Menfi, has called for national unity.
The bodies of dozens of Egyptian migrants who were among the victims of the storm in Libya arrived on Wednesday in Beni Suef, about 110 kilometers south of Cairo, Egyptian media reported.
Governments including Egypt, Qatar and Turkey have rushed to aid Libya. Italy’s defense ministry said it had two military aircraft carrying firefighters and other rescue personnel, and a navy ship.
The United Arab Emirates has sent two aid planes carrying 150 tons of urgent food, aid and medical supplies to eastern Libya, the UAE state news agency WAM reported.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
