On September 11, North African domestic authorities in Libya said it was estimated that more than 2,000 people may have died after strong typhoon Daniel in the Mediterranean caused severe flooding in the port city of Derna, east of Libya over the weekend.
Prime Minister of the eastern Libya government in Benghazi, Osama Hamad, told Al Masar TV that floods had swept away entire residential areas in Derna, leaving thousands of people missing.
Army spokesman Ahmad Mismari said that 7 soldiers of the Libya National Army are among those believed to be missing.
Benghazi Red crossburner Moon previously estimated between 150 and 250 people to have died in Derna, according to Reuters.
The authorities said severe pressure from heavy rains in Derna caused dams to break, destroying homes and roads.
Mismari said at a press conference that flooding was caused by a dam failure in the south of the city. "As a result, three bridges were destroyed. The fierce flood has swept the entire residential area into the sea, he said.
The spokesperson stressed that unprecedented flooding has occurred in the cities of Al-Bayda, Derna, Al-Marj, Tobruk, Takenisada, Al- Bayada and Battah, as well as all the cities and villages of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar and the eastern coast, as far as Benghazi.
The head of the parliament-backed eastern Libya government, Osama Hamad, described the situation as d crazy and unprecedented in Libya, according to the state news agency Libyan News Agency (LANA).
Clip shared on social media shows flooded cars, collapsed buildings and the water flowing through the streets.
The phone ring in Derna was broken and photos shared by the Red cancer Month showed the streets were severely flooded.
The head of Libya's Emergency and Rescue Agency, Osama Aly, told CNN that after the dam broke, "the whole country flowed near Derna, a coastal mountainous area."
Aly said that houses in the valleys in the flooded areas were swept away by strong mudflow carrying vehicles and debris.
Disasters in Libya came just days after Typhoon Daniel hit Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, killing at least 14 people. At least three people have been killed in Greece, seven in Turkey and four on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
Libya has declared a state of emergency and three days of mourning and imposed border crosses in the affected areas, including Benghazi, Sousse, Al Bayda and Al-Marj. Schools and businesses have been ordered to close.
Similarly, Tripoli's interim prime minister, Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, declared three days of mourning to commemorate the victims, designating the affected cities as "disaster areas".
The North African country has been cut into two competing governments since 2014, following the assassination of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
