2,000 feared dead in Libya floods caused by Mediterranean storm Daniel, PM says

A man being swept away by flood waters and submerged cars in Al Bayda.

The head of one of Libya's rival governments said on Monday that 2,000 people are feared dead in flooding that swept through the eastern parts of the north African nation.

In a phone interview with Al Masar television station Monday, Prime Minister Ossama Hamad said that 2,000 were feared dead in the eastern city of Derna, and thousands of others are reported missing.

He said the floods have swept away entire neighbourhoods in Derna, which has been declared a disaster zone, after the country was hit by Mediterranean storm Daniel.

"This is besides the massive material damage that struck public and private properties," a source told AFP.

The confirmed death toll from the weekend flooding stood at 38, according to health authorities. But the tally did not include Derna, the worst hit city, which had become inaccessible.

Video by Derna residents posted online showed major devastation. Entire residential blocks areas were erased along Wadi Derna, a river that runs down from the mountains through the city centre. Multi-story apartment buildings once well back from the river were partially collapsed into the mud.

Hundreds of residents were still believed to be trapped in difficult-to-reach areas as rescuers, backed by the army, were trying to come to their aid.

East Libyan authorities had "lost contact with nine soldiers during rescue operations", Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for the Benghazi-based administration in Libya said.

Footage on social media showed people stranded on the roofs of their vehicles while trying get help in heavy floods as Storm Daniel hit the cities of Benghazi, Sousse, Al Bayda, Al Marj and Derna.

"We were asleep, and when we woke up, we found water besieging the house. We are inside and trying to get out," Derna resident Ahmad Mohammad told Reuters by phone on Monday.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing, witnesses said.

Essam Abu Zeriba, the interior minister of the east Libya government, said more than 5,000 people were expected to be missing in Derna. He said many of the victims were swept away towards the Mediterranean.

In a telephone interview on the Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al-Arabiya, he urged local and international agencies to rush to help the city.

State of emergency

Authorities declared a state of extreme emergency, closing schools and stores and imposing a curfew.

Four major oil ports in Libya, Ras Lanuf, Zueitina, Brega and Es Sidra, were closed from Saturday evening for three days, two oil engineers told Reuters.

The prime minister of the interim government in Tripoli, Abdul Hamid Dbeiba, said on Sunday he had directed all state agencies to immediately deal with the damage and floods in eastern cities.

The United Nations in Libya said it was following the storm closely and would "provide urgent relief assistance in support of response efforts at local and national levels".

The Libyan Red Crescent said it lost contact with one of its workers as he attempted to help a stuck family in Bayda.

Dozens of others were reported missing, and authorities fear they could have died in the floods that destroyed homes and other properties in several towns in eastern Libya, according to local media.

More than 5,000 bodies recovered in Libya flood disaster

Death toll expected to rise after Storm Daniel devastates eastern city

More than 5,300 bodies have been recovered from the eastern Libyan city devastated by floods that swept away buildings, roads and bridges, according to a Libyan official.

Hichem Abu Chkiouat, civil aviation minister in the administration that runs eastern Libya, told Reuters the death toll was expected to rise as the "sea is constantly dumping dozens of bodies" in Derna, on Libya's Mediterranean coast.

The city of 100,000 people was the worst hit after Storm Daniel struck the north African country at the weekend. The floods in Derna had been exacerbated by the collapse of two dams, officials said, with torrents of water flowing through the city and destroying entire districts.

Officials in Libya, a dysfunctional state with rival governments in the east and west, have given varying numbers for the death toll as they seek to recover bodies hidden beneath rubble and mud. But thousands of people are believed to have perished. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Tuesday that 10,000 people were thought to be missing.

Officials have said rescue workers have struggled to reach parts of Derna because main roads had been washed away and turned into rivers. Electricity and communications within the city were also cut.

Videos and images posted on social media showed huge destruction, with buildings reduced to rubble and vehicles overturned. Corpses in plastic body bags were lined up on the ground.

The International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday that more than 30,000 people had been displaced by the flooding.

Flooding death toll soars to 11,300 in Libya's coastal city of Derna

A further 10,100 people are reported missing in Libya's Mediterranean city after a storm caused devastating flooding.

The death toll in Libya's coastal city of Derna has soared to 11,300 as search efforts continue following a massive flood fed by the breaching of two dams in heavy rains, the Libyan Red Crescent said.

Marie el-Drese, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Libya secretary-general, told The Associated Press news agency another 10,100 people are reported missing in the Mediterranean city. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.

The mayor of Derna, Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi, said the tally could climb to 20,000 given the number of neighbourhoods that were washed out.

The flooding swept away entire families in Derna on Sunday night and exposed vulnerabilities in the oil-rich country that has been mired in conflict since a 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

"Within seconds the water level suddenly rose," recounted one injured survivor who said he was swept away with his mother in the late-night ordeal before they both managed to scramble into an empty building downstream.

"The water was rising with us until we got to the fourth floor," the unidentified man said from his hospital bed, in testimony published by the Benghazi Medical Center.

"We could hear screams. From the window, I saw cars and bodies being carried away by the water. It lasted an hour or an hour and a half - but for us, it felt like a year."

Tariq al-Kharaz, an interior ministry spokesman, put the number of deaths in Derna far lower at more than 3,000.

"The catastrophe is massive and as a result access to many areas is not possible. Many areas suffered total damage. Many dead bodies are still under the debris, others washed away into the sea," al-Kharaz told Al Jazeera.

The storm also killed about 170 people in other parts of eastern Libya, including the towns of Bayda, Susa, Um Razaz and Marj, Health Minister Othman Abduljalil said.

Emergency workers sifting through the mud and rubble are still hopeful of finding survivors, IFRC said on Friday.

"The hope is there, is always there, to find people alive," said Tamer Ramadan, head of the group's rescue effort in the North African country.

Bodies buried as search mission continues

Derna has begun burying its dead, mostly in mass graves, said Abduljalil.

More than 3,000 bodies were buried by Thursday morning while another 2,000 were still being processed. Most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.

Abduljalil said rescue teams are still searching wrecked buildings in the city centre, and divers are combing the sea off Derna.

Untold numbers could be buried under drifts of mud and debris, including overturned cars and chunks of concrete that rise up to 4 metres (13 feet) high. Rescuers have struggled to bring in heavy equipment as the floods washed out or blocked roads leading to the area.

"This disaster was violent and brutal," said Yann Fridez, head of the Libya delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which had a team in Derna when the floodwaters hit.

"A wave 7 metres [23 feet] high wiped out buildings and washed infrastructure into the sea. Now family members are missing, dead bodies are washing back up on shore, and homes are destroyed."

ICRC is distributing 6,000 body bags to help authorities and the Libyan Red Crescent Society "ensure dignified treatment of the dead".

The World Health Organization and other aid groups on Friday called on authorities in Libya to stop burying flood victims in mass graves.

"We urge authorities in communities touched by tragedy to not rush forward with mass burials or mass cremations," said Dr Kazunobu Kojima, medical officer for biosafety and biosecurity.