As authorities in Libya announced a three day mourning following a deadly flood disaster, a Catholic bishop in the North African country expressed the church’s closeness to the people, many of whom are injured, missing or trapped by the storm waters.
On 13th September, the authorities were estimating that over 5,100 people had died and 10,000 were reportedly missing. Some media outlets already put the death toll at 6,000. The high number of those missing has provoked fears there will be a sharp rise in the number of deaths from the tsunami-like storm.
“For the time being, we are praying and keeping all in God’s mercy,” Bishop George Bugeja, a Maltese, who is the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, told OSV News. “I am in Tripoli (Libyan capital) and the situation here is very calm (but, the) information we have is that the storm happened in Cyrenaica (region), particularly in (the city of) Derna, where there were two dams that did not manage to hold the water and broke.”
As a consequence, the bishop said, “the water that came out with mud destroyed anything that was in its way: houses, streets.” Powerful Mediterranean Storm Daniel, including catastrophic rainfall in a short time, triggered the heavy flooding in eastern parts of the country.
As the storm pounded the coast on 10th September, residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside the city collapsed, The Associated Press reported. Derna, an eastern port city of approximately 90,000 people, has borne the highest brunt of the flooding. Authorities said 25% of the city had been destroyed, after two broken dam waters swiped entire neighbourhoods into the sea. The impact has also spread to other cities.
Picture: Members of Libyan Red Crescent Ajdabiya work in an area affected by flooding in Derna, 12th September 2023. On 13th September, the authorities estimated that over 5,100 people had died and 10,000 were reportedly missing. (OSV News photo/Libyan Red Crescent Ajdabiya via Reuters)