Libya storm aid arrives as survivors search for missing

The Star

Survivors of a flood that swept away the center of the Libyan city of Derna picked through the ruins on Thursday (Sept 14) in search of loved ones from among thousands of dead and missing, as rescue teams and aid arrive.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00 Aid is being deployed and rescue efforts are underway in the Libyan city of Derna as people

00:05 look for missing loved ones washed away by floods. Teams like this one from Turkey's

00:10 Humanitarian Relief Foundation enter buildings, searching for survivors and retrieving bodies.

00:17 A torrent of water unleashed by a powerful storm burst dams on Sunday night, leaving

00:23 the eastern city inundated. Donations from various parts of Libya slowly began trickling

00:29 in on Thursday and volunteers from a youth movement gathered to sort clothes donated

00:34 to support survivors. Among the countries sending aid, Turkey sent a ship carrying equipment

00:40 to set up two field hospitals. Italy sent three planes of supplies and personnel, as

00:46 well as two navy ships.

00:48 The scale of the devastation in Derna can be seen from the air. Multi-storey buildings

00:53 here were washed into the sea with sleeping families inside. Confirmed death tolls given

00:58 by officials have varied, but all are in the thousands, with thousands more on lists of

01:03 the missing. This Sudanese factory worker in Derna, Wali Adin Mohamed, said he was woken

01:10 in the early hours of Monday.

01:12 "We woke up at around 3 or 3.30 in the morning. We heard a large bang. Anyone who was awake

01:21 in Derna for sure must have heard it. The water was unbelievable. Everybody could hear

01:26 it. When we went outside, there was no more city. It had been razed to the ground."

01:35 Recovery and rescue efforts are hindered by political fractures in Libya, a country of

01:40 seven million people. It's been at war on and off and without a government holding nationwide

01:45 reach since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The World Meteorological

01:52 Organisation said the huge loss of life could have been avoided if Libya, a failed state

01:57 for more than a decade, had a functioning weather agency in place.

02:00 For more UN videos visit: www.un.org/webcast

02:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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