Today's Edition
DERNA (Reuters)
“I lost my daughter. Her mother is convinced that she is still alive. I am convinced that she is dead,” says Ahmed Ashour, 62. “She left me with a 3-month-old baby.”
A week after the flood swept the centre of Derna, Libya, into the sea, families are still coping with the unbearable losses of their loved ones - and distraught by the unknown fates of the missing.
Ashour›s eldest sister, as well the sister›s daughter, are also gone.
“When we saw what happened to other people, we can accept anything that happened to us,” she said.
The centre of Derna is a wasteland, with stray dogs listlessly standing on muddy mounds where buildings once stood. Other buildings are somehow still standing, precariously, above bottom floors that were mostly washed away. In a ruined shop front, the legs of a mannequin, dressed in dusty trousers, stick out of the rubble.
Dams above the city burst in a storm a week ago, sending a huge torrent down a seasonal riverbed that runs through the centre of the city which is home to 120,000 people.
Thousands are dead and thousands more are missing. Officials, using different methodologies, have given widely varying estimates of the tolls so far. On one hand, the Mayor estimates that over 20,000 people were lost, while The World Health Organization has confirmed 3,922 deaths.
“Hopes of finding survivors are fading, but we will continue the search efforts for any possible survivors,” said Othman Abduljaleel, Health Minister of the administration that controls eastern Libya, to Reuters over the phone. “Now, efforts are focused on rescuing anyone and recovering bodies from under the rubble, especially at sea, with the participation of many divers and specialised rescue teams.”
FAILED STATE
The roads to Derna were clogged on Monday, full of ambulances and trucks carrying food, water, diapers, mattresses, and other supplies.
Western countries and regional states have sent teams of rescue workers and mobile hospitals. Five Greek rescue workers, including three armed forces members, were killed in a car crash on Sunday.
Residents say that the threat to the city, stemming from the crumbling dams above it, had been widely known. However, the dam reparations have been stalled for over a decade. Residents also blame the authorities for failing to evacuate residents in time.
Now, the biggest threat to survivors may from contaminated water supplies.
“The flooding crisis has left thousands of people in the Derna region without access to clean and safe drinking water, posing an imminent threat to their health and well-being,” the International Rescue Committee charity said.
“Contaminated water can lead to the spread of waterborne diseases, putting vulnerable populations, especially women and children, at increased risk.”
