Residents of Derna in eastern Libya took stock of losses caused by a flood that devastated areas of the coastal city, as search operations for missing people continued for a sixth day on Saturday and more bodies were recovered from the sea.
Central Street, once the center of Derna’s economic activity and full of shops, was practically deserted. The silence was broken only by the sound of the wind whistling through the destroyed buildings, as people sat dejectedly in the streets, drinking coffee and surveying the damage.
“The first thing I fear is that it will take a long time,” said teacher Tarek Faheem al-Hasadi, 44, whose wife and five young grandchildren were killed in the flood. He and his son survived by climbing onto the roof.
“It takes perseverance and I fear that the support that comes will be temporary,” he said through tears, standing guard outside his destroyed home, but adding that he was determined not to leave the region.
A three-story building on the other side was swept away by floodwaters 200 feet down the street, Hasadi said.
On Derna’s seafront, where a wrecked car could be seen above concrete windbreaks and driftwood lying in muddy puddles, diggers worked to clear a path for rescuers and helicopters searched the sea for bodies.
Entire neighborhoods in Derna, one of eastern Libya’s largest cities, were swept away or buried in mud after two dams south of the city broke Sunday night, releasing a torrent of water into a usually dry riverbed.
The International Organization for Migration mission in Libya said more than 5,000 people were presumed dead, with 3,922 deaths reported in hospitals. Approximately 38,640 people remained displaced in the flood-hit region.
The real death toll could be much higher, officials said.
“The situation is very, very tragic,” said Qais, a Tunisian who participated in the rescue effort on the seafront and who gave only his first name. “We have never seen so much water damage.”
More than 450 bodies have been recovered from the seafront in the past three days, including 10 under the rubble, said Kamal Al-Siwi, the official in charge of the missing persons search operation.
“The work is ongoing and it is very, very, very complicated,” he told Reuters.
According to the UN, more than 1,000 people have been buried in mass graves, drawing the attention of humanitarian groups to the risk of water contamination and mental suffering for families of the deceased.
Source: Terra
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