What made Libya's floods so devastating?

The Star

As Libya struggles with disastrous flooding that the World Health Organization has called "a calamity of epic proportions", let’s take a look at what caused the deadly floods and the challenges facing the country.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Catastrophic flooding has left the coastal Libyan city of Derna with a humanitarian crisis

00:06 on its hands.

00:08 Libyan authorities are demanding an investigation into whether human failings are to blame for

00:13 the massive death toll.

00:14 Let's take a closer look at what caused the floods and why they're so bad.

00:20 After barrelling through the Mediterranean, the powerful Storm Daniel swept into eastern

00:24 Libya at the weekend.

00:27 It dumped so much rain that two dams collapsed in the hills south of Derna, unleashing a

00:32 torrent that slammed into the city.

00:35 But no one was alerted.

00:37 The head of the World Meteorological Organization said on Thursday a decade-plus of political

00:42 conflict had ruined Libya's weather service.

00:45 "If there would have been a normally operating meteorological service, they would have issued

00:50 the warnings and also the emergency management authorities would have been able to carry

00:56 out evacuation of the people."

00:58 Local researchers had also previously warned that the dams needed immediate and regular

01:04 maintenance.

01:06 Satellite images show large parts of the city totally flooded.

01:10 Whole neighbourhoods were destroyed or washed away.

01:13 "Over 35,000 are displaced and homeless.

01:18 This is a calamity of epic proportions."

01:21 The World Health Organization's Director General announced on Thursday emergency funds

01:26 of $2 million to support the increasingly urgent health needs of flood survivors.

01:32 Hospitals were destroyed, along with other infrastructure such as roads and bridges.

01:37 Power, water supplies and internet services were cut after the flood and only partially

01:43 restored as of Wednesday, according to UN officials.

01:48 Local authorities have given differing numbers of dead and missing, but all are in the thousands.

01:54 Here's Libya's UN envoy Tahir El-Sani.

01:56 "The numbers are changing as we speak.

02:00 The numbers are thousands.

02:01 So far as we got confirmed bodies, reached 6,000.

02:05 But the missing, because the area that was hit had a population of 30,000 in terms of

02:10 that area where it was direct hit.

02:12 The whole city could be more than 100,000."

02:16 While overseas aid teams have arrived to help, efforts are hampered by damaged roads and

02:21 bridges.

02:22 Rescuers have also appealed for more body bags, with fears of an epidemic breaking out.

02:29 Political fractures in the country of 7 million people also complicate the situation.

02:35 Libya has no unified government with nationwide reach, after a NATO-backed uprising toppled

02:41 Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

02:43 But in a rare show of solidarity, the Western government based in Tripoli has sent aid to

02:48 Derna in the east and offered to discuss relief efforts.

02:52 For Live UN Video visit www.un.org/webcast

Category

Transcript

Recommended