Satellite images show great destruction after the storm in Libya – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

Last weekend, seven meter high tidal waves hit the city of Derna in Libya after the storm “Daniel” hit the country. Derna’s population was around 200,000 before the storm ravaged the city. The mayor of the city, Abdulmenam Al-Ghaithi, estimates that 20,000 people have died. He bases the estimate on how many neighborhoods have been completely wiped out. Thousands are also injured or missing, and many more are left without a place to live. Satellite images show horrific destruction. Here, a motorway along the coast disappeared after the storm. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/AFP Analysis from the UN shows that more than 2,200 buildings were exposed to floodwater and at least six bridges were damaged. Hamad Shalawi, a former local official and member of the crisis committee, said the city was destroyed in seconds. “The geography of the city has completely changed as half of the city was swept into the sea,” he told BBC Arabic. Community facilities, including buildings around Darnes Football Club’s home ground, were also destroyed or covered in mud. This is what the buildings and streets in the city looked like after the flood. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/REUTERS In the neighborhood of Al-Eilwa, around 96 percent of the properties were flooded. The neighborhood is by Wadi Derna. Wadi Derna flows through the city and is usually a dry river bed. The storm brought more than 400mm of rain to parts of the north-east coast in a 24-hour period. That’s an extraordinary amount of rainfall for a region that typically experiences about 1.5mm during the whole of September. Libya’s National Meteorological Center says it is a new rainfall record. This is how the harbor in Derna was affected by the flood.MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/REUTERS The cities of Benghazi, Sousse, Al Bayda, Al-Marj and Derna were particularly exposed to the powerful forces of nature. At the coastal town of Derna, two dams collapsed. The authorities fear that even more dams will collapse, this time at the coastal cities of Tokra and Benghazi. Upper Dam at WadiMAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/AFP



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