Libya floods leaves 5,300 dead and 10,000 missing with bodies trapped in rubble
More than 5,300 people have been killed after Storm Daniel unleashed devastating floods and wiped out a city in Libya.
Emergency workers fear the toll could rise much further with 10,000 people still believed missing after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighbourhoods in the eastern city of Derna.
Aid has been slow to reach Derna in the crucial 48 hours after the disaster struck with the floods having damaged or destroyed many access roads to the coastal area, which is home to some 89,000 people. And the job of burying the dead has begun with more than 600 bodies now placed in mass graves.
Footage showed dozens of bodies covered by blankets in the yard of one local hospital, while one image showed a grave piled with bodies. More than 1,500 bodies have now been retrieved, with half of them had been buried, eastern Libya's health minister Othman Abduljalee said. He continued: "We were stunned by the amount of destruction... The tragedy is very significant, and beyond the capacity of Derna and the government."
Many bodies are believed to be trapped under rubble or have been washed out into the Mediterranean Sea (AFP via Getty Images)UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths tweeted: "#StormDaniel has claimed thousands of lives, causing widespread damage and wiping out livelihoods in eastern #Libya. I am allocating $10 million from @UNCERF to swiftly support people affected by the floods. We stand with the people of Libya at this difficult time."
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Jameela Al Lafi, 43, from Martuba, near the hardest-hit area said that her 20-year-old son was helping to bury the dead and she claimed that the devastation was worse than anything she had seen before - even from the conflict with ISIS. “We have been through wars, ISIS control and conflict – but we've never seen anything like this,” Ms Al Lafi told The National.
“We have seen the worst of it all. Whole families wiped out. Entire buildings disappearing. There are 10 and 12-storey buildings, with one or two apartments on every floor. Gone. Six hundred bodies were buried in the graveyard. They were using an excavator to create big graves so they can bury them all."
Residents said they heard loud explosions and realised that dams outside the city had collapsed, unleashing a horror flood (AP)Libya is divided by rival governments - one in the east, the other in the west - resulting in a neglect of infrastructure in many areas. Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told a UN briefing in Geneva via video conference from Tunisia that at least 10,000 people were still missing.
The situation in Libya is "as devastating as the situation in Morocco", Mr Ramadan said, referring to the deadly earthquake that hit near the city of Marrakesh on Friday night. The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya just two nights later. As Storm Daniel pounded the coast, residents said they heard loud explosions and realised that dams outside the city had collapsed.
Local emergency responders, including troops, government workers, volunteers and residents are still digging through rubble looking for the dead. They are also using inflatable boats to retrieve bodies from the water. Many bodies were believed to be trapped under rubble or had been washed out into the Mediterranean Sea, said Mr Abduljaleel.
Red Crescent teams from other parts of Libya are now in Derna, but extra excavators and other equipment had yet to get there. The British Red Cross is taking donations for its Libya Floods appeal to help those affected by the floods get urgent support.
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