Libyan city closed off as searchers look for 10,100 missing after flood deaths rise to 11,300

Cairo, Sept 15: Libyan authorities blocked civilians from entering the flood-stricken eastern city of
Derna on Friday so search teams could look through the mud and wrecked buildings for 10,100
people still missing after the known toll rose to 11,300 dead.
The disaster after two dams collapsed in heavy rains and sent a massive flood gushing into the
Mediterranean city early Monday underscored the storm’s intensity but also Libya’s vulnerability.
The oil-rich state since 2014 has been split between rival governments in the east and west backed
by various militia forces and international patrons.
Derna was being evacuated and only search and rescue teams would be allowed to enter, Salam al-
Fergany, director general of the Ambulance and Emergency Service in eastern Libya, announced late
Thursday.
The disaster has brought rare unity, as government agencies across Libya’s divide rushed to help the
affected areas, with the first aid convoys arriving in Derna on Tuesday evening. Relief efforts have
been slowed by the destruction after several bridges that connect the city were destroyed.
The Libyan Red Crescent said as of Thursday that 11,300 people in Derna had died and another
10,100 were reported missing. Mediterranean storm Daniel also killed about 170 people elsewhere
in the country.
Eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, has said the burials so far were in mass graves
outside Derna and nearby towns and cities.
Abduljaleel said rescue teams were searching wrecked buildings in the city center and divers were
combing the sea off Derna.
Soon after the storm hit the city Sunday night, residents said they heard loud explosions when the
dams outside the city collapsed.
Floodwaters gushed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crashing through
buildings and washing people out to sea.
Lori Hieber Girardet, the head of the risk knowledge branch the UN Office for Disaster Risk
Reduction, told The Associated Press on Thursday that because of years of chaos and conflict Libyan
“government institutions are not functioning as they should.”
As a result, she said, ”The amount of attention that should be paid to disaster management, to
disaster risk management isn’t adequate.”
The city of Derna is governed by Libya’s eastern administration, which is backed by the powerful
military commander Khalifa Hiftar. (AP)