Sousse – Libya
- Author, Ali Al-Qamati
- Role, . .
A number of coastal cities and villages in eastern Libya sent distress calls after communications that were cut off earlier due to Storm Daniel were restored, while search and rescue operations continue in the stricken city of Derna.
At a time when estimates indicate that thousands of people are missing and thousands of bodies have been recovered in the city of Derna alone, residents of other areas located on the eastern coast and approximately 80 kilometers from Derna speak of catastrophic conditions and dozens of missing people and victims as a result of the floods.
Storm Daniel cut off communications and electricity from the areas it struck in the east of the country, and the coastal roads linking the cities of the eastern coast below the Green Mountain collapsed, causing them to be isolated.
However, with the return of electricity and communications, the cities of Sousse, located 80 kilometers west of Derna, and Al-Mukhaili, located 120 kilometers southwest of Derna, launched a distress call after the floods swept away a number of homes, some of them with their residents.
image source, A resident of the city of Sousse
Floods swept away a number of homes in the city of Sousse.
Between the mountain and the sea
Abdullah Zfeir, a resident of the Sousse region, says that the floods swept away nearly 50 houses in the city of Sousse.
He added that there were still bodies under the buildings, calling on the concerned authorities to go to the city immediately and help its residents.
The coastal city of Sousse is one of the cities located between the Green Mountain and the sea, making it a stream of torrents.
Abdullah added to the BBC, “The city does not contain any dams. The heavy rain brought by Storm Daniel caused torrential torrential rains that the city had never witnessed before.”
image source, A citizen of the city of Sousse
The ambulance service in Sousse says that the floods swept away a number of citizens
He explained, “The water began to cover the city’s streets and neighborhoods with the entry of Storm Daniel, before the water began to flow from the generation and move towards the sea. Then it turned into torrents that carried away the houses on its way and the rest houses that were on the beaches of Sousse, some of them with their residents.”
Abdullah called for the need to support the city and rescue those buried under the rubble, he said.
The ambulance service in Libya called on emergency teams to go to the city of Sousse to rescue more than a thousand families stranded in the city, at a time when the Red Crescent teams said that a number of bodies had been recovered from the beaches of Sousse, some of which belonged to residents of the region and the rest belonged to people from Derna, whose bodies were thrown by the waves on the beaches of Sousse. . The city was also classified as the second most affected city after Derna.
image source, Activist Abdul Qader Al-Jenin
The floods completely concealed a number of small villages
image source, Activist Abdul Qader Al-Jenin
Floods caused major damage to citizens’ homes in the Al-Mukhaili area
As for the southwest of Derna, at an estimated distance of 120 kilometers, the village of Al-Mukhaili is located, which was among the villages that were severely damaged by the floods. Although no missing persons or deaths have been reported in the village yet, the BBC obtained Pictures from activist Abdel Qader Al-Jenin, who visited the area, show the great destruction the village suffered.
The Libyan Roads and Bridges Authority announced the opening of a new route to enter the Al-Mukhaili area after all the main roads linking the area to it were destroyed, which led to its isolation.
image source, Activist Abdul Qader Al-Jenin
The storm led to the cutting of roads and communications in the village of Al-Mukhaili
The storm also completely wiped out the village of Al-Wardiya, located between Sousse and Benghazi, due to torrential floods.
The village is located on the western slope of Jabal Al Akhdar. Because it is a small village whose population does not exceed 500 people, the torrential floods were able to destroy all the homes and farms in it, according to the accounts of the village residents who were able to leave their homes before they were destroyed.
Local and international relief agencies in Libya are working to create alternative routes to the roads that were swept away by the floods, with the aim of reconnecting the affected cities and reaching them to assess the situation.
There are still no official statistics for the number of victims and missing people due to the continuing search and rescue operations, but the Libyan Red Crescent in Derna told the BBC that “there are about 2,000 bodies that were swept by torrents into the sea from the city of Derna alone,” noting that the winds and waves carried the bodies to the sea. Kashhat, Martouba and Umm al-Razm areas.
The director of the Ambulance and Emergency Service in Libya confirmed the start of evacuating citizens from Derna and preventing civilians from entering it, provided that the presence in the city is limited to rescue teams, volunteers, and the army that takes over the city to focus search and rescue operations.
