The sheer scale of this is mind-blowing to me. The very same storm passed over my head (I’m in Greece) and left a trail of heavy flooding that will take years to recover from, but what happened in Libya will affect an entire generation or even generations to come. This is the kind of impact we can expect from climate change,‘especially coupled with neglect of public infrastructure.
This was far less about climate change, and more about two dams not being maintained during an elongated period of political instability. Had the dams not failed when they were topped, it would have been a case of some buildings sitting in a river bed for a day or two. Property damage, but very low risk of loss of life.
The dams failing unleased a tsunami filled with boulders that smashed buildings, gathering more debris as it went.
The rain pulled the trigger, but it was not the cause.
This is probably the highest death count i ever seen. Is this the highest in this century/decade?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The death toll from devastating flooding in Libya’s eastern coastal city of Derna has risen to at least 11,300, according to a UN report released Saturday, even as continuing search efforts are expected to find more victims.
A further 170 people have been killed outside of Derna due to the flooding, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Experts say the storm’s impact was greatly exacerbated by a lethal confluence of factors including aging, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate warnings and the effects of the accelerating climate crisis.
Almost 300,000 children who were exposed to the flooding due to Storm Daniel face increased risk of cholera, malnutrition, diarrhea, and dehydration.
“Bodies are severely decomposing and at one point retrieving them might not be possible,” a representative from the Tunisian mission said in a meeting with counterparts from Russia, Arab countries, Turkey and Italy.
A representative from the Algerian mission said teams spotted around 50 bodies from a cliff around seven nautical miles from the Derna port, but added that the area was only accessible by divers and boats.
The original article contains 449 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
