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NO.2528 - Libyan Super Natural Disaster
Text: Kilimanjaro's snow
Drafting: Cheng Che / Proofreading: Gu Hanying / Editor: Cheng Che
Recently, Hurricane Daniel in the Mediterranean swept through the North African country of Libya, bringing deadly flooding to the northeast of the country. As of 15 September, 11,300 people had died and another 10,100 were missing in Derna alone.
The mayor of Derna, Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi, said the death toll could be as high as 20,000 given the number of communities washed away. The storm also killed about 170 people in other parts of the country.
Years of war and flooding
The Libyan people suffer even more ▼
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent States reported more than 10,000 missing persons. International aid groups say many villages are still buried in their entirety and the death toll should rise further.
The aftermath of the disaster was devastated
(Photo: Twitter)
The hardest hit is the small northeastern city of Derna, 250 kilometers east of Benghazi and surrounded by mountains, bisected by the usually dry Drna River in summer, and raging flooding has caused two dikes upstream to burst, knocking away many buildings along the river and even directly into the Mediterranean.
The flood swept through Derna
Even the Mediterranean Sea was dyed yellow
(Photo: SOAR) ▼
The city has about 80,000 inhabitants, and according to international media reports, many families may have been "wiped out" in the floods. At present, the hospital in Derna is no longer operational, the morgue has been filled, and many bodies have been buried in a group.
The city along the river was razed to the ground
(Photo: Twitter)
A spokesman for the Libyan National Army, which controls eastern Libya, said the flooding also affected several eastern cities, including Beidah, Maji, Tubruq, Taknes, Beyada and Bata, as well as a vast area from the east coast to Benghazi.
The eastern coastal area suffered
Global warming fuels heavy rainfall
The disaster in Libya is both a natural disaster and a man-made disaster.
First of all, the flood was the deadliest in North Africa in more than 100 years, and the rainfall that caused this flood was indeed very extreme, from Hurricane Daniel.
Hurricane "Daniel" made landfall on Libya's eastern coast ▼
"Daniel" was originally formed in Greece on September 4 and named by the Greek National Meteorological Service. As Daniel moves toward Libya, it is characterized by a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone, a hybrid of tropical cyclone and mid-latitude storm whose activity typically peaks between September and January.
Mediterranean hurricanes occur less frequently, but not uncommonly, while Daniel is more intense. Before the landfall in Libya, flooding had already been brought to Greece and Turkey.
Hurricane Daniel brought a lot of precipitation
(Photo: Keraunos)
Greece, in particular, was also very badly affected, and on September 5 and 6, "Daniel" brought Greece the largest rainfall on record, and even "split Greece" in two.
Daniel then crossed the Mediterranean, and in the process, he was recharged from the warm Mediterranean waters as the water temperature in the Mediterranean had remained record-breaking for months. Soaring global ocean temperatures have contributed to heavy rainfall from storms.
"Daniel" sucked up enough water vapor on the Mediterranean
（图：zoom earth）▼
On September 10, Daniel reached its peak in northeastern Libya, with strong winds of 70 to 80 kilometers per hour and torrential rainfall of 150 to 240 millimeters leading to flash flooding in several cities, including a new daily record of 414.1 millimeters in the city of Beda.
Most of Libya has a tropical desert climate, and only a few coastal areas have a Mediterranean climate, and the annual precipitation in the country is very small. Libya has not experienced such torrential rains in years, let alone prepared for such a disaster.
Arid Libya ▼
In addition, global warming is also the climate background of this disaster. International media quoted scientists as saying that global warming will lead to less frequent but more intense hurricanes in the Mediterranean.
Man-made disasters magnify natural disasters
In addition to natural disasters, man-made disasters were also "accomplices" when the hurricane caused great damage. The city of Derna, which is close to the Dernakan River, has also experienced flooding in its history and is not entirely devoid of flood control experience.
In 2022, experts pointed out that the possibility of destructive flooding in Derna is very high, and the upstream dams need regular maintenance, but this has not attracted any attention.
Storming bridges destroys roads and even creates new landscapes
The destructive power of the floods is truly astonishing
(Photo: Twitter)
But since the fall of the Qaddafi regime in 2011, the North African country has been divided into two governments, one is the national unity government based in the western capital Tripoli; The other is a government backed by the Libyan National Army led by warlord Haftar, headquartered in Benghazi in the east (the "government" is based in Tobruk), which mainly controls the eastern and southern regions. Located about 300 kilometers east of Benghazi, Derna is controlled by Haftar and its eastern government.
After the fall of Gaddafi, Libya became a pot of porridge
Take a look at this map of Libya's situation in 2020
It's a bit of a Tripoli feeling ▼
Previously, the Government of National Unity and the Libyan National Army had been fighting a civil war for several years, and the Libyan National Army once besieged Tripolida for a year, but neither side could destroy the other by force.
The two governments are also supported by external forces: the "Government of National Unity" is strongly supported by Turkey; The Libyan National Army received strong assistance from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Neither side has really prioritized disaster prevention.
The streets of Libya were a mess after the war
(Photo: OneImage) ▼
In a divided political situation, the security situation in Libya is also very bad. The hardest-hit city of Derna was once entrenched for three or four years by militants who were "loyal" to the extremist group "Islamic State".
In October 2014, Derna was taken over by Islamic State militants, where extremists went on a killing spree in the years that followed, and a prolonged siege and fighting by the Libyan National Army as it retook the city further damaged the city's infrastructure.
Fighting and fighting, it is the common people who suffer
(Photo: OneImage) ▼
Libya's National Meteorological Centre claimed to have issued a disaster warning 72 hours in advance and notified all government departments via email and media to be vigilant and urge preventive measures. A state of emergency was also declared in eastern Libya. However, it is clear that these warnings have not been seriously implemented, nor have disaster responses been carried out seriously.
Many residents in the eastern region told the media that they had not received any warning at all, and that the "state of emergency" in the eastern region was only lip service, and there were almost no substantive measures, including evacuating personnel, organizing emergency teams, and strengthening water conservancy facilities.
Local governments did little before and after the disaster
(Photo: Khalaed Mahmoued)
In recent years, Libya's two divided regimes have fought for dominance, with neither focusing on infrastructure.
The heavy loss of Derna this time was due to the collapse of two dams upstream, and the floods quickly destroyed the city. And due to the lack of planning, people built houses along the river, increasing the lethality of flooding.
The upper reaches of the Derna River lack large reservoirs that can effectively hold back floods
The flood easily broke two small dams and gushed out of the valley
Sweep through the city of Derna, at the foot of the mountain
(Aerial view of the topography of the city of Derna)▼
The city's deputy mayor said the city's dams had not been maintained for more than two decades and the infrastructure could not withstand the effects of this week's devastating floods.
"The erosion of the Derna dam is not new," he said. They have been reported several times, but there is no official attention to the matter. This is not just a natural disaster, but also a man-made disaster and the result of the neglect of the city. ”
A long road to disaster relief
Various political forces are busy fighting for power, and no one has the heart to seriously think about what is really beneficial to the development of the country and society.
Not only is it lacking in disaster prevention, but the Libyan government, which is divided in post-disaster relief, is also at odds. While the Libyan National Army claims to have deployed tens of thousands of military personnel, it says emergency workers remain unable to access many of the affected areas; The troops of the Government of National Unity were certainly not allowed to enter the affected areas.
It can only rely on foreign rescue forces to intervene
(Malta rescue team involved in disaster relief Photo: Twitter Photo) ▼
"All official institutions, in particular the Central Bank of Libya, should provide the urgent financial support needed so that the executive can carry out their work and continue reconstruction," said the leader of the Libyan National Army, Haftar. ”
But the central bank, which distributes funds across the country, is in the hands of the western government, which residents do not receive relief supplies from the central bank and are currently dependent on international aid.
The United Nations came to the rescue
(Photo: IOM) ▼
Hani Shenneb, chairman of the U.S. National Committee on Libyan Relations, said Libya's East-West political divide has had a significant impact on services, including disaster relief. There is such a huge resentment and rift between the two sides that even if groups or individuals rescue the east in private cars, they are not well received.
It is worth noting that Libya still faces a severe test after the floodwaters have receded. A large number of refugees are unable to be properly accommodated.
International organizations estimate that between 150 and 2 million people affected the country, and a large number of refugees are currently homeless and in urgent need of temporary shelter facilities.
I finally survived, and my home was gone
(Photo: Abdulkader)
In the face of political instability in the country, widespread damage will also be difficult to repair, requiring $67 million to repair roads and bridges in the hardest-hit area of Derna, and the victims may face a long-term recovery process.
Then there is the potential plague that will follow the floods, and the Greek health sector is also on guard, with the Greek Ministry of Health and all hospitals and medical facilities in the Thessaly region on alert to deal with the possible public health risks caused by the floods in the coming days. Libya, in the midst of civil strife, apparently lacked preparedness for the Great Plague.
After the floodwaters receded, the road to disaster relief remained long, and the road to the reconstruction of the Libyan country was even longer.
Resources:
1. https://news.un.org/zh/story/2023/09/1121452
2. https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/least-2300-dead-epic-libya-floods-thousands-more-missing
3. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/12/infrastructure-in-libyas-derna-not-built-to-withstand-storm-deputy-mayor
4. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/9/12/libya-floods-live-news-thousands-dead-missing-in-derna-after-storm-daniel
5. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/11/africa/libya-flooding-storm-daniel-climate-intl/index.html
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_tropical-like_cyclone
*The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau
Cover: Twitter
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