"Desert turns to ocean": Flood survivors in eastern Libya tell horrific experiences
"Have you ever seen a desert turn into an ocean in an instant?"
The image has been etched in the mind of 22-year-old Mohammed Ocali since the day Storm Daniel hit the village of Muhali near the Libyan coastal town of Derna.
He recalled the devastating floods that hit parts of eastern Libya last week, killing more than 11,000 people.
Yao said there was a false sense of "calm" after a "strong storm and strong wind" passed through the area.
"We were sleeping quietly, but around 12:30 p.m., without warning, water started pouring into the house," he said.
They went up to the roof with their families. It was at that moment that he realized the scale and intensity of the flood.
"I was surprised by what I saw. Huge floods swept the entire region, coming from two different directions, north and west," Yao said.
Together with his friends, Yao felt a sense of responsibility to his neighbors and society. He said he knew others nearby would be hit hard because their low-lying area was essentially a valley.
Many are still stuck at home, unable to climb onto rooftops – which seems like the safest place to be.
"I tried to move around, but the rapids rushed me straight to the neighbor's fence," he said.
A few minutes later, he climbed up the neighbor's wall "with great effort" and found them battling water on the roof.
"They spend the night on top of the locker room and no one can help them," he said.
For days on end, because the water level was "unbelievably high", the people of the village had to live on roofs and furniture. He said no one knew what was happening "outside" after the wires were cut.
"Imagine the whole village waking up... No food or drinks. ”
Their fate is similar to that of thousands of others along the coast. Derna, by far the worst-affected town, flooded the town by a dam and released large amounts of water.
At least 10,000 people were missing during the search and rescue. The internationally recognized Government of Tripoli and international donors have also begun to provide assistance.
Mayor Abdel Moneim Gaiti warned that the death toll in Derna alone could rise to 20,000 given the large number of blocks washed away.
While most of the search and rescue efforts have focused on Derna, others in the immediate area say they have not yet been helped.
Faisal Darsi, from the village of Valdia, about 20 kilometers west of Beda, said his village had not received any assistance due to collapsed roads and damaged infrastructure.
"To this day we have not received any help from the government or any official agency," Darcy said. Instead, we got help from people in the surrounding area. ”
Access to the village is becoming increasingly difficult, he said. "There is no electricity, fuel, water or food".
"The floods destroyed everything here, including supermarkets, entire houses, power towers and telephone towers, and at least 20 of the 50 houses in the village were destroyed by the floods," Darcy said.
The storm exposed the fragility of the oil-rich country, which has been mired in conflict since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
Experts say corruption, poorly maintained public infrastructure and years of political battles — Libya split into two rival governments — have made the country particularly vulnerable and ill-equipped to weather the Confucian storm.
As the entire family remains missing, residents of all affected areas are also struggling to find their loved ones.
"We don't know who died and who was alive," Darcy said. All the families in our village are missing, some are still buried in the mud, some have been swept into the sea by the river. So far, no one has been found. There were about 27 bodies, but "many more are missing." Some of the bodies were "unrecognizable" and "disfigured." These are "floods that brought from the southern regions to the valleys near us."
Meanwhile, in Susa, about 50 kilometers from Derna, Tahani Zani, chief surgeon of the emergency department, said the situation at the hospital remained "catastrophic."
"I received the bodies of my best friends and personally took them to the morgue," Zani said. "I don't have time to cry or be weak, so I can't even mourn them."
Azani said she knew the storm was coming a few days ago, but didn't expect it to be so big.
She recalled that she was working at the time and "all of a sudden all communication and power was cut off and I didn't know anything about my family, they didn't know me".
She said the bodies in the hospital were "right in front of us."
Although Zani could not give an aggregate, she said she "personally" admitted that more than eight bodies, including children, entered the morgue.
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