Fire and Rescue International
  • Home
  • Magazines
    • Featured Article
    • FRI Magazine
    • DMJ Magazine
  • Newsletters
    • 13 June 2025
    • 7 June 2025
    • 30 May 2025
    • 23 May 2025
    • 16 May 2025
    • 9 May 2025
    • 2 May 2025
    • 25 April 2025
    • 11 April 2025
    • 4 April 2025
    • 21 March 2025
    • 14 March 2025
    • 7 March 2025
    • 28 February 2025
    • 14 February 2025
    • 7 February 2025
    • 31 January 2025
    • 24 January 2025
    • 17 January 2025
    • 10 January 2025
    • 20 December 2024
    • 13 December 2024
    • 6 December 2024
  • Advertising
    • Fire and Rescue International
    • Disaster Management
    • FRI Newsletter
  • Subscribe
  • Articles
  • Galleries
    • DMISA 2024
    • NMU Fire Symposium 2024
    • ETS 2024 Gallery
    • WFFG Denmark 2024
    • TFA 2024 Gallery
    • Electra Mining 2024
    • Drager Challenge 2024
    • AOSH Firexpo 2024
    • Midvaal Fit to Fight Fire 2024
    • WoF KNP 2023 Gallery
    • TFA 2023 Gallery
    • DMISA Conference 2023
    • ETS 2023 Gallery
      • ETS 2023 Main Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Second Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Third Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Marching
      • ETS 2023 Exhibitors Demonstrations
      • ETS 2023 Prize Giving
      • ETS 2023 Team Photos
      • ETS 2023 General Photos
    • Drager Fire Combat and Rescue Challenge 2023
      • Presentation
      • Tower Challenge
      • Mobile Training Challenge
      • Fitness Challenge
      • General
      • Group
      • Prize Giving
    • AOSH Firexpo 2023
    • Midvaal Fit to Fight Fire
      • Midvaal Challenge
      • Midvaal General Photos
      • Midvaal Team Photos
      • Midvaal Prize Giving
    • WC IFFD 2023
    • NMU 13th Fire Management Symposium 2022
    • JOIFF Africa Conference 2022
    • ETS 2022 Gallery
      • ETS 2022 Main Scenario
      • ETS 2022 Fire Fighter Challenge
      • ETS 2022 Skills Event
      • ETS 2022 Exhibitors/demonstrations
      • ETS 2022 Team Photos
      • ETS 2022 General Photos
      • ETS 2022 Awards Ceremony
    • TFA 2022 Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Main Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Group Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Mini TFA
      • TFA 2022 Awards Gallery
    • IFFD 2018
      • Western Cape
    • SAESI
    • TFA
      • TFA 2018
      • TFA 2019
        • TFA 2019 Start
        • TFA 2019 Stage 1
        • TFA 2019 Stage 2
        • TFA 2019 Stage 3
        • TFA 2019 Awards
        • TFA 2019 General
        • TFA 2019 Group
    • WRC 2018
    • WRC 2019
    • A-OSH/Securex
    • IFE AGM 2019
    • ETS Ind Fire Comp Nov 2019
    • ETS Challenge 2021
    • Drager launch
    • Drager Fire Combat and Rescue Challenge 2022
  • TFA
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Magazines
    • Featured Article
    • FRI Magazine
    • DMJ Magazine
  • Newsletters
    • 13 June 2025
    • 7 June 2025
    • 30 May 2025
    • 23 May 2025
    • 16 May 2025
    • 9 May 2025
    • 2 May 2025
    • 25 April 2025
    • 11 April 2025
    • 4 April 2025
    • 21 March 2025
    • 14 March 2025
    • 7 March 2025
    • 28 February 2025
    • 14 February 2025
    • 7 February 2025
    • 31 January 2025
    • 24 January 2025
    • 17 January 2025
    • 10 January 2025
    • 20 December 2024
    • 13 December 2024
    • 6 December 2024
  • Advertising
    • Fire and Rescue International
    • Disaster Management
    • FRI Newsletter
  • Subscribe
  • Articles
  • Galleries
    • DMISA 2024
    • NMU Fire Symposium 2024
    • ETS 2024 Gallery
    • WFFG Denmark 2024
    • TFA 2024 Gallery
    • Electra Mining 2024
    • Drager Challenge 2024
    • AOSH Firexpo 2024
    • Midvaal Fit to Fight Fire 2024
    • WoF KNP 2023 Gallery
    • TFA 2023 Gallery
    • DMISA Conference 2023
    • ETS 2023 Gallery
      • ETS 2023 Main Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Second Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Third Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Marching
      • ETS 2023 Exhibitors Demonstrations
      • ETS 2023 Prize Giving
      • ETS 2023 Team Photos
      • ETS 2023 General Photos
    • Drager Fire Combat and Rescue Challenge 2023
      • Presentation
      • Tower Challenge
      • Mobile Training Challenge
      • Fitness Challenge
      • General
      • Group
      • Prize Giving
    • AOSH Firexpo 2023
    • Midvaal Fit to Fight Fire
      • Midvaal Challenge
      • Midvaal General Photos
      • Midvaal Team Photos
      • Midvaal Prize Giving
    • WC IFFD 2023
    • NMU 13th Fire Management Symposium 2022
    • JOIFF Africa Conference 2022
    • ETS 2022 Gallery
      • ETS 2022 Main Scenario
      • ETS 2022 Fire Fighter Challenge
      • ETS 2022 Skills Event
      • ETS 2022 Exhibitors/demonstrations
      • ETS 2022 Team Photos
      • ETS 2022 General Photos
      • ETS 2022 Awards Ceremony
    • TFA 2022 Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Main Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Group Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Mini TFA
      • TFA 2022 Awards Gallery
    • IFFD 2018
      • Western Cape
    • SAESI
    • TFA
      • TFA 2018
      • TFA 2019
        • TFA 2019 Start
        • TFA 2019 Stage 1
        • TFA 2019 Stage 2
        • TFA 2019 Stage 3
        • TFA 2019 Awards
        • TFA 2019 General
        • TFA 2019 Group
    • WRC 2018
    • WRC 2019
    • A-OSH/Securex
    • IFE AGM 2019
    • ETS Ind Fire Comp Nov 2019
    • ETS Challenge 2021
    • Drager launch
    • Drager Fire Combat and Rescue Challenge 2022
  • TFA
  • Contact
Search

Proudly serving those who serve

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

15 September 2023
Back to newsletter​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

‘Disastrous beyond comprehension’: 10 000 missing after Libya floods

​The situation in Derna, the Libyan port city where two dams burst over the weekend, has been described as “disastrous beyond comprehension”, as the Red Cross and local officials said at least 10 000 people were missing after the devastating floods. Thousands of people were killed, 11 000 is the current estimation, in the floods caused by the huge Mediterranean storm, Storm Daniel, that burst dams, swept away buildings and wiped out as much as a quarter of the eastern coastal city of Derna.
 
The flooding caused by Storm Daniel led to a complete break in communications and cut off internet access in Derna. Entire neighbourhoods by the bank of a swollen river had been ravaged and washed away.
 
An emergency medical supply plane carrying 14 tons of supplies, medication, equipment, body bags and 87 medical and paramedic personnel was heading to Benghazi to support the areas affected by the flood, the head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, said.
 
Video footage circulating on social media showed people pleading for help and screaming as muddy water engulfed their homes. Other video captured torrents sweeping away cars on streets, which had turned into rivers.
 
A senior medic in Derna told media that more than 2 000 people were dead, while eastern Libya officials cited by local television were estimating a toll above 5 000.
 
The confirmed death toll has exceeded 5 300, Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesperson for the administration that controls the east of Libya told a state-run news agency late on Tuesday. Tariq al-Kharraz, another representative of the eastern government, said that entire neighbourhoods had been washed away, with many bodies swept out to sea.
 
Hundreds of bodies were piled up in cemeteries with few survivors able to identify them, according to Kharraz, who said he expected the death toll to rise above 10 000 people, a figure also quoted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
 
Rami Elshaheibi, the Libyan national communications officer for the World Health Organization, said the situation in Derna was “disastrous beyond comprehension”.
 
Hichem Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation, said many of the dead remained where the water left them: “Bodies are lying everywhere, in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” Chkiouat told media by phone after a visit to the city. “I am not exaggerating when I say that 25 percent of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed.”
 
Video footage circulating on social media showed people pleading for help and screaming as muddy water engulfed their homes. Other video captured torrents sweeping away cars on streets, which had turned into rivers.
 
Sondos Shuwaib, a local blogger, said she was in her home when suddenly she found herself torn away by the flood waters. In a harrowing account of the disaster posted online, she described seeing children and babies caught in the current. “There were corpses next to me and corpses above me, and corpses beneath me,” she wrote. Shuwaib eventually washed up in shallow waters and was taken to hospital. “I am not able to comprehend what happened,” she wrote. “Sometimes I thank God for my survival but when I remember that my family is missing … I wish I had died with them.”
 
The Norwegian Refugee Council said tens of thousands of people had been displaced with no prospect of going back home. “Our team in Libya is reporting a disastrous situation for some of the most impoverished communities along the north coast. Entire villages have been overwhelmed by the floods and the death toll continues to rise,” it said.
 
Desperate citizens were appealing on social media for information about missing relatives. Many were angry at the slow pace of the relief effort, and of local authorities’ failure to warn that the dams were at risk of bursting.
 
Engineers had previously issued generalised warnings about the risk of the dams bursting and the urgent need to strengthen their defences.
 
Anas El-Gomati, the founder of the Libya-based Sadeq thinktank, said a political inquest would be necessary. “North Africa is not immune to climate change but this is also about corruption and incompetence. In Morocco perhaps you had seconds or minutes when the tectonic plates moved, but here in Libya there was plenty of warning about this hurricane … yet there was no evacuation of Derna and now a quarter of the city’s population are under water.”
 
A 2022 report in an academic journal had warned that if a flood equivalent to one in 1959 was repeated, it would be “likely to cause one of the two dams to collapse, making the residents of the valley and the city of Derna vulnerable due to a high risk of flooding”.
 
Oil-rich Libya has been riven by political infighting, corruption and external interference since a 2011 uprising that toppled and later led to the death of the longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Attempts stretching back a decade to form a unified functioning government has failed and instead two rival governments backed by their own militias are based in Tripoli in the west and Tobruk in the east.
 
Investment in roads and public services has dwindled and there has been minimal regulation of private building.
 
Derna was for several years controlled by Islamist militant groups until it was captured in 2019 by Gen Khalifa Haftar, the warlord in charge of an army in the east.
 
Since then, the eastern government has been suspicious of the city and sidelined its residents, said Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for defence and security studies.
 
 
Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, BBC News

Back to newsletter​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Quick navigation

  • Home
  • FRI magazine
  • DMJ magazine
  • Articles
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • Contact

Social

Who are we?

FRI Media (Pty) Ltd is an independent publisher of technical magazines including the well-read and respected Fire and Rescue International, its weekly FRI Newsletter and the Disaster Management Journal. We also offer a complete marketing and publishing package, which include design, printing and corporate wear and gifts.

Weekly FRI Newsletter

Subscribe to the newsletter free of charge!
© Copyright 2025 Fire and Rescue International. All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • Magazines
    • Featured Article
    • FRI Magazine
    • DMJ Magazine
  • Newsletters
    • 13 June 2025
    • 7 June 2025
    • 30 May 2025
    • 23 May 2025
    • 16 May 2025
    • 9 May 2025
    • 2 May 2025
    • 25 April 2025
    • 11 April 2025
    • 4 April 2025
    • 21 March 2025
    • 14 March 2025
    • 7 March 2025
    • 28 February 2025
    • 14 February 2025
    • 7 February 2025
    • 31 January 2025
    • 24 January 2025
    • 17 January 2025
    • 10 January 2025
    • 20 December 2024
    • 13 December 2024
    • 6 December 2024
  • Advertising
    • Fire and Rescue International
    • Disaster Management
    • FRI Newsletter
  • Subscribe
  • Articles
  • Galleries
    • DMISA 2024
    • NMU Fire Symposium 2024
    • ETS 2024 Gallery
    • WFFG Denmark 2024
    • TFA 2024 Gallery
    • Electra Mining 2024
    • Drager Challenge 2024
    • AOSH Firexpo 2024
    • Midvaal Fit to Fight Fire 2024
    • WoF KNP 2023 Gallery
    • TFA 2023 Gallery
    • DMISA Conference 2023
    • ETS 2023 Gallery
      • ETS 2023 Main Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Second Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Third Scenario
      • ETS 2023 Marching
      • ETS 2023 Exhibitors Demonstrations
      • ETS 2023 Prize Giving
      • ETS 2023 Team Photos
      • ETS 2023 General Photos
    • Drager Fire Combat and Rescue Challenge 2023
      • Presentation
      • Tower Challenge
      • Mobile Training Challenge
      • Fitness Challenge
      • General
      • Group
      • Prize Giving
    • AOSH Firexpo 2023
    • Midvaal Fit to Fight Fire
      • Midvaal Challenge
      • Midvaal General Photos
      • Midvaal Team Photos
      • Midvaal Prize Giving
    • WC IFFD 2023
    • NMU 13th Fire Management Symposium 2022
    • JOIFF Africa Conference 2022
    • ETS 2022 Gallery
      • ETS 2022 Main Scenario
      • ETS 2022 Fire Fighter Challenge
      • ETS 2022 Skills Event
      • ETS 2022 Exhibitors/demonstrations
      • ETS 2022 Team Photos
      • ETS 2022 General Photos
      • ETS 2022 Awards Ceremony
    • TFA 2022 Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Main Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Group Gallery
      • TFA 2022 Mini TFA
      • TFA 2022 Awards Gallery
    • IFFD 2018
      • Western Cape
    • SAESI
    • TFA
      • TFA 2018
      • TFA 2019
        • TFA 2019 Start
        • TFA 2019 Stage 1
        • TFA 2019 Stage 2
        • TFA 2019 Stage 3
        • TFA 2019 Awards
        • TFA 2019 General
        • TFA 2019 Group
    • WRC 2018
    • WRC 2019
    • A-OSH/Securex
    • IFE AGM 2019
    • ETS Ind Fire Comp Nov 2019
    • ETS Challenge 2021
    • Drager launch
    • Drager Fire Combat and Rescue Challenge 2022
  • TFA
  • Contact