11,300 people now dead in Libya’s floods, says Red Crescent
The Libya Red Crescent said the death toll in the devastating floods that rocked the North African country last week has reached 11,300 as search efforts continue to find more missing people.
More than a week on, authorities said many victims’ bodies are still in the water, sparking another fear of people contracting infectious diseases due to the decomposing corpses, health experts warned.
Libyans are still mourning since penultimate Sunday’s floods from two broken dams caused by storm Daniel, which wreaked havoc and swept almost a quarter of the eastern city of Derna.
The latest figures doubled the earlier 5,500 health authorities had initially reported as the number of casualties in Derna. The Associated Press reported that Marie el-Drese, a Libya Red Crescent official, said 10,000 more people are still missing.
On Thursday, a United Nations official claimed most casualties could have been avoided.
“If there would have been a normal operating meteorological service, they could have issued the warnings,” World Meteorological Organisation head Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva.”
“The emergency management authorities would have been able to carry out the evacuation,” he added.
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