Libya Floods: Death Toll Reaches 11,300 in Derna
- IHH via AP
Libya – At least 11,300 people death and 10,100 others was missing in the devastated city of Derna, the United Nations announced on Saturday.
Meanwhile, rescuers, armed with diggers, clawed through debris to find survivors under the rubble of leveled buildings in Derna, where the previously asphalt roads were awash with wreckage.
Bodies are regularly being found amid mangled cars, uprooted palm trees and bits of buildings at the Derna seafront.
Banjir di Libya
- VOA News
An estimated 170 people were killed by floods in other parts of the country, and more than 40,000 people were forced to flee, a UN report said, citing the latest data from the International Organization for Migration.
These numbers are expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue to search for survivors affected by the Libyan floods.
Meanwhile, rescuers, armed with diggers, clawed through debris to find survivors under the rubble of leveled buildings in Derna, where the previously asphalt roads were awash with wreckage.
Bodies are regularly being found amid mangled cars, uprooted palm trees and bits of buildings at the Derna seafront.
Residents and aid groups gathered the bodies of those who were washed out to sea when historic rain caused two dams to burst and sent millions of cubic meters of floodwater through the center of the city.
"These numbers are expected to rise as search-and-rescue crews work tirelessly to find survivors,” the United Nations’ Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said of the death toll as of 5 PM local time, on Saturday.
The World Health Organization said 32 tons of health aid, enough to reach almost 250,000 people also arrived Saturday, including essential medicines, trauma and emergency supplies, and medical equipment.
“This is a disaster of epic proportions,” Dr. Ahmed Zouiten, a WHO representative in Libya, said in a statement, as reported from NBC site.
The aid package also includes body bags for safe and dignified burials of the dead amid fears of the authorities’ rushing to bury people in mass graves.
“The bodies of people who have died following wounds sustained in a natural disaster or armed conflict almost never pose a health danger to communities,” the agency said in a separate statement last week, urging for properly documented burials and cremations.
Health alarms were not limited to the dead bodies.
“The National Center for Disease Control has already detected at least 55 children poisoned as a result of drinking polluted water in Derna,” the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Nearly 300,000 children were at soaring risk of diarrhea, cholera, dehydration and malnutrition, according to UNICEF, with nearly every critical infrastructure having been wiped out in the affected areas.
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