The number of people killed in the floods in Derna, Libya, has exceeded 10,000.
Prior to this, the worst flooding in North Africa occurred in Algeria in 1927, killing more than 3,000 people in the country. The number of confirmed deaths in Libya now far exceeds historical records, and more than 10,000 others are missing.
Devastated
In the words of local residents, the sea is full of corpses, countless houses and infrastructure have collapsed, and the whole city seems to be at the end of the day. It is no exaggeration to say that overnight, 1/4 of the delna disappeared.
Located at the mouth of the Drna River in Libya, Derna is prone to hurricanes and floods. This time the accident was triggered by Hurricane Daniel, when the dam on the upper reaches of the Derna River burst and floodwaters poured into the city, washing away defenceless citizens and buildings in disrepair.
The unprecedented casualties have completely collapsed the already overwhelmed local medical system. The corridors of the hospital were reportedly filled with corpses, during which people kept coming to check on the bodies and confirm whether their family and friends were among them.
One survivor who escaped because he was out of town said that Derna had not been flooded before, but never at the same time as this time, almost at the same time with all his relatives and friends, and they are likely no longer alive.
An old man sits on the ruins
Needless to say, the moment the dam collapses, the power of the torrent can even reach the level of an atomic bomb, and because the disaster area is directly downstream of the dam that broke the embankment, the terrain difference further aggravates the power of the current, and houses and vehicles are smashed to pieces in an instant.
Natural disasters are inevitable, but man-made disasters should be. As early as last year, Libyan hydrologists published a paper warning of the high risk of the dam of the Derna River bursting and calling on all parties to strengthen the facilities as soon as possible, otherwise the harm of the dam collapse is immeasurable.
As we all know, after the outbreak of the Libyan war in 2011, it split into two regimes, the National Unity Government in the west and the National Assembly in the east.
For a long time, Derna was a "three-way" zone controlled by extremist groups, only to be recovered by the eastern regime in 2019. But Haftar, the de facto leader of the National Convention, feared a return of terrorists, so he has been reluctant to repair local infrastructure so as not to give enemies a wedding dress.
The hemp rope is specially picked and broken
It doesn't matter to the east, let alone the west. Libya's National Meteorological Centre, controlled by the government of national unity, claimed afterwards that it had issued warning messages long before the typhoon made landfall and that the Derna government itself had not taken precautions.
But according to Derna, they did not receive any weather warnings and evacuation plans in advance, and by the time the dam burst and the torrent poured in, it was too late to escape. Although the flood was not as sudden as an earthquake, the inaction of various forces eventually led to the evil result that "disaster occurs in an instant".
In the aftermath of the disaster, the antagonism between eastern and western regimes further hampered rescue operations. It stands to reason that the relief money should be distributed by the central bank, but the Libyan central bank is controlled by the western government, and they did not say that they would not save it, but they did not save it in the first place, so that the government of Derna could only ask the international community for help.
After neighboring countries sent rescue teams to Derna, the government in western Libya belatedly announced that it would provide $400 million worth of supplies, which is a bit unkind.
The cars were all washed away
After all, the other day there was a major earthquake in Morocco, and in order to allow relief teams and supplies to arrive as quickly as possible, even Algeria, with which it had been at odds for many years, opened its airspace. No matter how the eastern and western regimes in Libya confront each other, and the victims are innocent people, can't we put aside political grudges and work together to tide over the difficulties?
In fact, this time Hurricane "Daniel" not only visited Libya, including Greece and other countries on the northern coast of the Mediterranean have suffered disasters, but because the early warning system and governance capabilities are far beyond Libya, and the stability of infrastructure facilities is also strong, so the casualties are not large.
As a cold knowledge, most of the modern infrastructure that Derner can call was built in the Gaddafi era, including a dam that was washed away by the flood in the 70s.
Gaddafi was indeed a highly controversial political figure, but his contribution to Libya is also undeniable. During his reign, Libyans enjoyed free health care and education, and the government subsidized residents to buy houses and food and other necessities, and the year before Gaddafi's overthrow, Libya's mobile phone coverage reached 103%, with an average of one mobile phone per person.
Others really can't wear this temperament
Because of Gaddafi's sharp personal style, Libya had poor relations with many countries at the time, and without foreign aid, the Qaddafi government itself bore most of the infrastructure construction costs, which is not something that any petro-state can do.
However, this all came to an abrupt end in 2011. Since then, Libya has been mired in endless civil war and terrorist attacks, and just last month an armed conflict broke out in the capital, Tripoli. Under the turmoil, the government's ability to govern and respond to the crisis cannot be guaranteed, and it is the people who are injured.
Libyans may not remember Gaddafi as good, but the Gaddafi era was at least not so bad in comparison.