Derna (Libya): Libyan authorities limited access to an inundated city to allow searchers to dig through mud and hollowed-out buildings for 10,000 people missing and feared dead in flooding that has already killed more than 11,000. Authorities warned that disease and explosives washed away could claim yet more lives. In the most affected areas, efforts to recover the dead and distribute aid were plagued by confusion and lack of resources. Libya’s two opposing governments, long divided by civil strife and war, have struggled to respond to the disaster of such great proportions.
Two dams collapsed in exceptionally heavy rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel last week, sending a wall of water several feet high gushing down a valley that cuts through the city of Derna. Re lief has been slowed by the destruction after several bridges that connect Derna were destroyed and distribution of aid has been patchy.
Heaps of twisted metal and flooded cars littered Derna’s streets, which are caked in a tan mud. Teams have buried bodies in mass graves outside the city and in nearby towns, Eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, said. But officials worried that thousands more were yet to be found.
In the Libyan city of Derna, the mayor's residence was set ablaze by hundreds of protesters who were calling for an explanation for the disastrous flood.They gathered on Monday night at the city's landmark Sahaba Mosque, many chanting for top officials in Libya's eastern government to be sacked.