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About 2,000 people have died and 10,000 are missing after Storm Danielle pounded northeast Libya with rain so heavy that two dams collapsed and water rushed into already flooded areas. Tamer Ramadan, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' delegation to Libya, gave the missing figures during a briefing for journalists in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “The death toll is huge,“ she said. Some 6,000 people are missing in the eastern city of Derna, which suffered the worst destruction, health minister for Libya's eastern administration, told Libya's Entire neighborhoods in the city were washed away, authorities said. Abduljalil toured Derna on Monday. “The situation was catastrophic ... There are still bodies lying in many places,“ he said. “There are families still trapped in their homes and there are victims under the rubble ... I expect people have been washed out to sea.“ The rain hitting several towns in northeastern Libya is the result of a very strong low-pressure system that caused catastrophic flooding in Greece last week and spread to the Mediterranean Sea before becoming a tropical cyclone known as a tropical cyclone. medicine . There are fears that relief efforts could be hampered by political divisions in Libya, where there has been a decade-long power struggle between two rival administrations. The UN-backed Government of National Unity led in Tripoli in northwestern Libya, while its eastern rival is controlled by Commander and his Libyan National Army who support the east-based parliament. led by Osama Hamad. Derna, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of Benghazi, falls under the control of Haftar and his eastern administration. The collapse of two dams under flood pressure caused water to rush toward Derna, causing catastrophic damage, authorities said Tuesday. “Three bridges have been destroyed. The flowing water swept away entire neighborhoods, eventually dumping them into the sea.“ Homes in valleys were washed away by strong mud flows carrying vehicles and debris, said Osama Ali, head of Libya's Emergency and Ambulance Authority. Phone lines in the city are down, complicating rescue efforts as workers are unable to reach Derna because of the severe destruction The situation in the country is “unprecedented,“ said Hamad, the head of the eastern administration, according to a report by the state-run news organization Libyan News Agency Several countries have offered assistance as rescue teams try to find survivors under rubble and debris. Turkish planes carrying humanitarian aid have arrived in Libya, Turkey's Emergency Management Authority said Tuesday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country would send 168 search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid to Benghazi, the state-run news agency reported Tuesday The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, announced that its special envoy, Ambassador Richard Norland, has issued an official statement on the humanitarian need. The weather system is expected to slowly move eastward towards northern Egypt. Rainfall over the next two days could reach 50 mm - the average rainfall in this region for the whole of September is less than 10 mm.
