The Libyan Red Crescent announced that the death toll in Derna had reached 11,000. This number is expected to increase as the recovery effort continues and more bodies are pulled from the mud.
Officials estimate that about 30,000 people have been left homeless. Politicians are calling for an official inquiry into the floods. Many Libyans blame the lack of infrastructure maintenance. The UN has also criticized the country’s early warning system.
The head of the World Meteorological Organization said most of the casualties could have been avoided if residents had been warned and given time to escape.
“Everybody was screaming”
As Sunday night progressed, the rain grew heavier. The sirens were sounding, reports the BBC. “It really started around 2:30 a.m.,” Amna Al Ameen Absais, a 23-year-old medical student who was born and raised in Derna, said in a telephone interview from the nearby city of Tobruk.
“The noise was getting much louder. My brother said he could see water covering the road.”
As the water rose, neighbors began to go upstairs. Amna grabbed the cat and four passports and they went up from the first floor apartment to a third floor apartment.
“People were looking out into the darkness and praying,” he said. Then the water reached the third floor.
“Everyone started screaming. We went up again, to the fifth floor and finally to the seventh floor.” The panic had begun. “I lost the cat,” Amna said.“I lost my little brother for a minute, but then I found him. I realized we couldn’t even stay on the seventh floor, we had to go to the roof.”
From there they could see neighbors on the roof of a three-story building across the street, including a family they were friends with. Neighbors waved their phone lenses. Moments later, their entire building collapsed into the water in the darkness.
Source: News Beast
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