A Libyan city scarred by disaster tries to rebuild a year after deadly flooding

A year since two dams burst upstream from the eastern Libyan city of Derna, unleashing a wall of water that swept away thousands of people, its residents no longer hold out hope of finding many of their loved ones.

For Libya, the disaster on the night of Sept. 10 was unprecedented as torrential rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel gushed down steep mountainsides. Those who survived in the coastal city recount nightmarish scenes, with bodies piling up quicker than authorities could count them.

Mohsen al-Sheikh, a 52-year-old actor and theater administrator, lost 103 of his extended family — only four bodies of his relatives were recovered.

Scores of other families were also nearly wiped out, with only a few surviving members, al-Sheikh says. “Those who were found were found, and those who weren’t, weren’t.”

Now, the townspeople and city officials are trying to rebuild even though they will never bury those who disappeared forever.

Deadly flooding in Derna's riverbed valley

Residents of Derna woke up to the loud explosions of the two dams breaking. What followed was a living nightmare.

The surging waters, two stories high, wiped out entire neighborhoods, roads, bridges and residential buildings across the port city. Thousands of people were instantly washed away, drowning within minutes, and tens of thousands more were displaced.

Estimates from aid organizations put the number of deaths between 4,000 and 11,000, and the number of missing people between 9,000 and 10,000. Another 30,000 were displaced.

Houses in the al-Maghar neighborhood, where al-Sheikh lives, were built on a hillside of a dry riverbed valley, where the water rushed into. The slope meant many houses had a lower and upper entrance on opposite sides — a design that al-Maghar had come up with many years earlier. Some fleeing families used the back doors to escape to higher ground.

Al-Maghar’s design may have saved hundreds during the flooding, although it wasn't built to serve an emergency purpose. That night, many also fled by running into their neighbors’ homes and up the hill, through the higher-level doors.

Derna residents ended up calling them “the doors of safety.”

That night, Shaker Alhusni left his own home to help a neighbor, only to return and find his house full of water. His family was able to flee to higher floors.

A report published not long after the disaster found that the torrential rains were 50 times more likely to occur and 50% more intense because of human-caused climate change. The analysis was conducted by the World Weather Attribution group, which aims to quickly evaluate the possible role of climate change in extreme weather events.

In late July, Libya’s criminal court sentenced 12 local officials responsible for managing the country’s dam facilities for negligence in the dams’ maintenance. Sentences ranged between nine to 29 years in prison, according to Libya’s Attorney General’s Office. ٍ

Rebuilding amid political uncertainty

The oil-rich Libya has been in chaos since 2011, when an Arab Spring uprising, backed by NATO, ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed.

Derna, with its diverse mix of residents of Turkish, Andalusian and Cretan origin, was for years a cultural center of the North African country. But it was also deeply affected by Libya's civil war and more than a decade of unrest. For several years after the 2011 uprising, it fell under the influence of the Islamic State group and other extremists.

Now, one of Libya’s rival authorities is putting serious resources into rebuilding Derna — the east-based government and the forces of Gen. Khalifa Hifter and his self-styled Libyan National Army. A rival administration is based in the capital of Tripoli, to the west, and enjoys the support of most of the international community.

Last September, the east-based Libyan parliament agreed to allocate 10 billion Libyan dinars (around $2 billion) to launch a development fund that would help rebuild Derna and impacted areas around the city.

A city committee for maintenance and reconstruction began building new homes and provided financial compensation for the survivors, including Al-Sheikh.

Across Derna's riverbed, widened by the floodwaters, al-Sahaba Bridge is being rebuilt along with al-Sahaba Mosque next door.

There are plans to build 280 apartments for those who lost their homes, according to Salem al-Sheikh, an engineer at the construction site that's part of a residential project launched in May. Al-Sheikh told The Associated Press that 60% of reconstruction works across Derna has been completed.

More support for the survivors

International observers say that the country needs much more support to help the coastal city get back to a semblance of the life it once had.

“There remains a critical need for coordinated, effective and efficient reconstruction and long-term development,” said Stephanie Koury, head of the U.N.’s mission to Libya, or UNSMIL, said in a statement marking the first anniversary of Derna's disaster.

In July, Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Office, said reconstruction efforts and helping authorities identify human remains are crucial.

“We reiterate the calls of affected communities for coordinated, transparent, and national efforts for reconstruction," she said. “It is crucial to provide assistance ... in the identification of human remains and the dignified reburial of the bodies.”

Plans to rebuild the dams were being discussed last year, but it remains unconfirmed whether those plans will move forward.

That leaves al-Sheikh uncertain whether he'll be able to return to his house or will it be completely demolished like others that remain along the Derna Valley to avoid another similar tragedy in the future.

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Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

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