More than 1500 bodies have been uncovered in the wreckage of Derna after a torrent smashed through dams and washed away entire suburbs. Some 10,000 people are still missing.
Emergency workers have uncovered more than 1500 bodies in the wreckage of Libya’s eastern city of Derna after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire suburbs, and it was feared the toll could surpass 5000.pointed to the storm’s intensity, but also the vulnerability of a nation torn apart by chaos for more than a decade. The country is divided by rival governments, one in the east, the other in the west, and the result has been neglect of infrastructure in many areas.
But the toll is likely to be higher, said Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He told a UN briefing in Geneva via videoconference from Tunisia that at least 10,000 people were still missing. He said later that more than 40,000 people have been displaced.
Many bodies were believed trapped under rubble or had been washed out into the Mediterranean Sea, said eastern Libya’s Health Minister Othman Abduljaleel. Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist and meteorologist at Leipzig University, said with Daniel dumping 440 millimetres of rain in a short time “the infrastructure could probably not cope, leading to the collapse of the dam”. He added that human-induced rises in water surface temperatures likely added to the storm’s intensity.
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