Libya floods: UN says most casualties in Derna could have been averted

The United Nations (UN) said on Thursday (September 14) that most of the deaths due to floods in Libya's Derna could have been averted if early warning and emergency management systems had functioned properly. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Petteri Taalas, head of the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said, "With better functioning coordination in the crisis-wracked country, "they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties."

Taalas said that the lack of weather forecasting and dissemination and action on early warnings was a large contributor to the size of the disaster. He also said that the years-long internal conflict in the country meant its meteorological "observing network has been very much destroyed, the IT systems have been destroyed."

"The flooding events came and there was no evacuation taking place because there was not the proper early warning systems in place," the WMO chief further told reporters. "Of course, we cannot fully avoid economic losses, but we could have also minimised those losses by having proper services in place," he added.

Thousands dead, thousands more missing

The reported death toll due to the floods has crossed 5,000. Confirmed death tolls given by officials so far have varied, but the number is in thousands. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, Derna Mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi said deaths in the city could reach 18,000-20,000, based on the extent of the damage.

"We actually need teams specialised in recovering bodies," Mayor al-Ghaithi said, adding the city will be infected by an epidemic due to the large number of bodies under the rubble and in the water.

Several countries have rushed to provide relief aid to Libya including rescue teams, food, water emergency shelters, medical supplies and more body bags.

Climate experts have linked the disaster to the impacts of a heating planet combined with the country's years of chaos and decaying infrastructure.

The floods were caused by a huge Mediterranean storm Daniel that burst dams, swept away buildings, and wiped out as much as a quarter of the city. Storm Daniel gathered strength during an unusually hot summer and earlier lashed Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece.

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