Derna, Cyrenaica, Libya. Unusually heavy rains cause two dams to collapse, and the wave overwhelms the city of Derna, killing at least 11,300 people. “In a matter of seconds, the water level suddenly rose,” said an injured survivor, who said he and his mother were swept away during the nighttime ordeal before they both managed to squeeze into an empty building downstream. “The water rose with us, up to the fourth floor,” he said. “We could hear screams. From the window, I saw cars and bodies being swept away by the water. It lasted an hour or an hour and a half, but to us, it felt like a year.” At least 13% of the population of the eastern Libyan city of Derna was killed or missing, and a quarter of the city’s neighborhoods were wiped off the map as the disastrous floods devastated the country. The flooding caused by Storm Daniel is unprecedented in the Maghreb region, the Arab world, or even globally in the 21st century. The storm also killed about 170 people in other parts of eastern Libya, including the cities of Baydah, Sousse, Um Razaz, and Marj, Health Minister Othman Abduljalil said.
