Extreme rainfall from storm system Daniel has hit parts of the central and eastern Mediterranean in recent days, leading to devastating flooding and loss of life in Libya, the worst affected country. Several thousand are reported dead and some 10,000 people are reported missing in Libya's eastern city of Derna after severe flooding hit the north-east of the country.
Libya’s National Meteorological Center said that the storm reached a peak in northeastern Libya on Sunday, with strong winds of 70 - 80 km/h. This caused communications interruption, the fall of electricity towers and trees.
Torrential rains of between 150 - 240 mm caused flash floods in several cities, including Al-Bayda, which recorded the highest daily rainfall rate of 414.1 mm. The National Meteorological Center said this was a new rainfall record.
Late Tuesday, a spokesperson for the administration that controls the east of the war-torn country said that flooding left more than 5,300 people dead, after two dams collapsed in the coastal city, sweeping away large chunks of the city and leaving outlying regions under water. The dams collapsed under pressure from Storm Daniel, which wreaked havoc across eastern Libya Sunday.
Storm Daniel unfolded in Greece. As it moved towards Libya, the storm developed the characteristics of a Medicane – (MEDIterranean hurriCANE). This hybrid weather phenomenon shows some characteristics of a tropical cyclone and others of a mid-latitude storm.
Tamer Ramadan, Head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) delegation in Libya, said Tuesday the humanitarian needs were huge in Libya following the flooding created by the Storm Daniel.
According to reports from the Libyan Red Crescent on the ground, about 10,000 people are missing after the unprecedented flooding. The death toll is huge and expected to reach into the thousands in the coming days, the IFRC said.
Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday the flooding was of “epic proportions”.
“There’s not been a storm like this in the region in living memory, so it’s a great shock,” she said.
Thousands of families lost their houses. Communication is a major challenge given the lack of electricity and internet in the worst-affected areas.
Torrents of water rushed through streets and alleyways, causing buildings to collapse and sweeping away vehicles in Derna. The dams collapsing caused a deluge of water that inflicted the massive damage following heavy rain from the Medicane.
The flash floods led to the death of many residents and great losses of property. Entire neighborhoods in Derna disappeared, along with their residents swept away by water after two aging dams collapsed, making the situation catastrophic and out of control.
Rescuers carried hundreds of people to safety in eastern Libya's largest city of Benghazi, after water surrounded their homes and vehicles. Thousands of people were reportedly missing, and eastern Libya's interior minister told local media that one quarter of Derna "was swept away by the flooding."
Residents of Derna piled bodies in front of buildings and in makeshift morgues, lamenting the heavy death toll and the loss of many families in the flooding. Eyewitness reports say that corpses lined the streets in many parts of the city and many others were carried away by the waters.
Libyan media reported that the color of the sea along the coast of Derna had become a shade of brown from the muddy waters that flowed from the city into the Mediterranean.
A local doctor from Derna's rescue squad, Oussama Ali, told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV that "many corpses had been taken to the city's al-Ghobba Hospital, but that rescue workers were trying to bury the dead as quickly as possible to avoid the spread of any diseases." He said that it was "unlikely that many of those who were missing would be found alive."
Col. Ahmed Almasmari, a spokesman for eastern Libyan military commander Gen. Khalifa Hafter, told Arab media that the collapse of the two old dams caused the torrential flooding. He said that floodwaters filled the mostly dry riverbeds surrounding Derna, sweeping away three bridges that divide the city into two parts and causing several dams to collapse from the pressure of the floodwaters.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), some 30,000 people have been displaced in the city of Derna. IOM reported that obstructed, destroyed and flooded roads severely undermine access to humanitarian actors.
There are seven entrances to the city, but only two are currently available from the south. The bridges over river Derna that connect the eastern part of the city to the west have collapsed.
Interior Minister Issam Abou Zareiba told Arab media that several European countries, as well as neighboring Egypt, had sent planes and rescue workers to help local officials trying to cope with the flooding and heavy casualties.
Workers and residents of eastern Libyan towns and cities from Benghazi to the Egyptian border spent much of the day Tuesday clearing mud and rubble from many streets that remained impassible from debris carried away by floodwaters.
"It's still very early to grasp how disastrous this situation is, but from what we're seeing now, this has been a huge hit to Libya in terms of historical disastrous situation," Libya-based humanitarian worker Rami Musa told VOA.
"The normal floods that we see because of the lack of infrastructure that every time it rains heavily that we have street floods, you know, one or two meters that's usually expected due to the titrating infrastructure, but this magnitude has never been seen before," Musa added.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Libya’s National Meteorological Center issued early warnings for this extreme weather event 72 hours before its occurrence, and notified all governmental authorities by e-mails and through media urging them to take more care and caution, and also urging them to take preventive measures. A State of Emergency was announced in the eastern regions based on these warnings.
UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres, in a statement released by his spokesperson, expressed his condolences to the Libyan authorities and the families of those who have perished.
"At this time, our thoughts are with the thousands of people being affected there in their communities, we stand in solidarity with all people in Libya during this difficult time", said spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric Tuesday.
Dujarric added UN officials on the ground were responding at the site of the disaster. The UN was working with Libyan authorities to assess needs and support ongoing relief efforts, he said.
"Furthermore, we are mobilizing resources and emergency teams to support those affected people and are working with local, national, and international partners to get urgently needed humanitarian assistance to people in the affected areas."
Libya is in effect under the control of two rival administrations, the internationally recognized Government in Tripoli, and authorities based along with the parliament in the east. The two rival governments in Libya mean that decision-making is often paralyzed.
The natural disaster may be related to the global climate crisis. As the planet warms, the expectation among experts is that the earth will see more extreme rainfall events, leading to more severe flooding because warmer air holds more moisture.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Storm Daniel leads to extreme rain and floods in Mediterranean, heavy loss of life in Libya, WMO press release, September 12, 2023
https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/storm-daniel-leads-extreme-rain-and-floods-mediterranean-heavy-loss-of-life-libya