Ruba Hatem Yassine clambered to a rooftop and found shelter in a small storage unit as the city was wrecked with water.
As two dams collapsed and stormwaters tore through the streets of the Libyan city of Derna, carrying bodies and buildings with them, Ruba Hatem Yassine, her pregnant sister and several older relatives clambered up a neighbour’s ladder to the roof to flee the grasp of the rushing flood below.
Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies in Derna, where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed thousands of people.Once the floodwaters had somewhat subsided, other survivors helped her family of nine come down to safety.“We walked out barefoot and saw our friends and neighbours dying around us,” she said. “And we couldn’t do anything.”The city of Derna after the floods.
The flooding began after heavy rains over the weekend burst through two dams south of Derna, unleashing torrents of water through the city of nearly 100,000 people. Much of the city, which lies Derna is 250 kilometres east of Benghazi, was destroyed as entire neighbourhoods, including homes, schools and mosques, were swept away.
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