After Storm Daniel, which hit the east of Libya, two dams collapsed and a major flood occurred in Derna. In the statement made by the Mayor of Derne, it is stated that at least 10 thousand people are missing, while the death toll may reach 20 thousand.
Images from Derne show corpses lined up on the streets for relatives to identify before they were buried.
Working in a hospital in Benghazi, Dr. Anas traveled to Derna to help treat survivors of Storm Daniel.
“We thought we would see a lot of injured people, but we were shocked to see a lot of dead bodies around the hospital. This is a complete disaster. I was really shocked,” Anas told the BBC.
Authorities estimate at least 10,000 people are missing and say the death toll could rise further.
The International Organization for Migration, affiliated with the United Nations, said that at least 30 thousand people were left homeless in Derna.
HORRIBLE VIEWS
In the Derne photographs, corpses washed ashore in areas where neighborhoods were completely washed away into the Mediterranean as a result of floods can be seen.
Hichem Abu Chkiouat, the civil aviation minister of the government that governs eastern Libya, said, “Dozens of bodies constantly wash up at sea.”
Eyewitnesses in Derna told the BBC that entire houses and buildings were washed into the sea while people slept.
Residents of the city stated that Derne, where approximately 90 thousand people live, was divided into two by flood waters.
Satellite photographs taken before and after the flood disaster also show that the narrow stream bed passing through the city center has widened and all the buildings along the stream have been destroyed.
Extensive damage can also be seen in other parts of the city, reducing buildings to rubble.
A local resident told the BBC that initial rescue efforts in Derna were disrupted by an armed group that prevented anyone from entering the city.
In the messages shared from the local Derne Zoom account on the social media platform
In the post on September 13, the account uploaded images of flooded streets and wrote the following note: “Once upon a time, there was a city called Derne.”
THE FLOODS WERE VERY SEVERE
The stream, known as Vadi Derne, passes through the city and flows into the sea.
Libyan meteorologist Ali Buhris told the BBC that Derna, Shahhat and Al Merj are areas of heavy rainfall every year.
Buhris added that the extreme weather conditions Libya is currently facing are considered a climate cycle and that the country has witnessed unusual natural events such as snow or earthquakes.
Water engineering experts told the BBC that the upper dam, about 12 km from the city, may have collapsed first and water drifted down the river valley to the second dam, closer to Derne, where neighborhoods were flooded.
Eyewitnesses said that heavy rains resulting from Storm Daniel caused flood waters to flow through the streets of Derna. However, they said they heard an explosion in the Grand Dam at around 02.30 on Sunday and the flood reached gigantic proportions in less than an hour.