The disaster in Derna, in eastern Libya, swept "whole neighborhoods with their residents into the sea," one official said.
  • @RelativeArea0@lemmy.ml
    24•1 year ago

    Thank you for including the reason at post title, I’ve seen this news somewhere and refuses to click on links, at first I was like “its bone dry there how tf a sudden flood came out from somewhere” and then i see your post.

    • @Gsus4@feddit.nl
      6•1 year ago

      After clicking some links, I confirmed that there was also a storm called Daniel and that the two dams didn’t just burst by themselves, they burst because of the flood from that storm

      PS: apparently it’s not just the storm, there were previous warnings.

      A 2022 report in an academic journal had warned that if a flood equivalent to one in 1959 was repeated, it would be “likely to cause one of the two dams to collapse, making the residents of the valley and the city of Derna vulnerable due to a high risk of flooding”.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/libya-floods-death-toll-dams-burst

    • @Zippy@lemmy.world
      4•1 year ago

      China had a dam collapse in 1975 that resulted in an additional 67 other dams to fail. The Chinese government recently acknowledged the death toll at half a million people but knowing the government their and the poor statistics of the people living alone that watershed area, I suspect the number is well north of a million people.

      Honestly I would far rather live next to a nuclear plant then downstream of a damn. In every nuclear accident, you could safely walk, not run, but walk away from danger. Chernobyl included. When a damn fails, there can be little warning and the destruction is complete.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    7•1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    CAIRO — Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods in Libya that broke dams and swept away entire neighborhoods in multiple coastal towns in the east of the North African nation.

    Since a 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed long-time ruler Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has lacked a central government and the resulting lawlessness has meant dwindling investment in the country’s roads and public services and also minimal regulation of private building.

    Dozens of others were reported missing, and authorities fear they could have died in the floods that destroyed homes and other properties in several towns in eastern Libya, according to local media.

    Georgette Gagnon, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, said early reports showed that dozens of villages and towns were “severely affected … with widespread flooding, damage to infrastructure, and loss of life.”

    I call on all local, national, and international partners to join hands to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the people in eastern Libya,” she wrote on X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

    Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, said his country would send humanitarian assistance and search-and-rescue teams to eastern Libya, according to the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency.

    The original article contains 914 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!