Eastern city of Derna declared a ‘disaster zone’ after collapse of two dams, while one UN official described the situation as ‘a calamity of epic proportions’
By MEE staff Published date: 12 September 2023 12:15 BST
More than 5,000 people have been killed and thousands more are feared dead after Storm Daniel triggered devastating floods in eastern Libya that broke dams and swept away entire neighborhoods
Tarek al-Kharraz, a spokesman for the interior ministry of the government that oversees eastern Libya, one of two rival administrations running the country, said at least 5,200 people had died in Derna after the collapse of two dams in the city.
Rows of bodies shrouded in blankets lay on the sidewalk outside a hospital in the city, highlighting how the storm overwhelmed Libya’s infrastructure and state institutions which have been devastated by years of war and political turmoil.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Red Cross official said 10,000 people were missing, more than 48 hours after the storm made landfall.
“Our teams on the ground are still doing their assessment, [but] from what we see and from the news coming to us, the death toll is huge,” Tamer Ramadan, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told reporters in Tunisia.
“We don’t have a definite number right now,” he said, adding that “the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 people so far”.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said international aid offers had started coming in.
“There were multiple offers of help and we will only accept aid that is necessary,” Dbeibah said.
The US said they were coordinating with Libyan authorities and the United Nations to provide support and provide emergency funds through relief organisations.
The area of Libya affected by Storm Daniel is controlled by renegade general Khalifa Haftar.
The 79-year-old, who controls vast swathes of the country’s east, has enjoyed significant backing from Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as diplomatic cover from France.
Libya has been in a state of unrest since 2011 when a Nato-backed uprising toppled longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Years of political instability, corruption and war have led to the neglect of key state institutions such as hospitals, sanitation and rescue teams that are needed to help in a disaster response.
Hichem Chkiouat, a minister and member of the eastern government’s emergency committee, said Derna was one of the worst hit cities and had suffered unprecedented devastation.
“I am not exaggerating when I say that 25 percent of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed,” he told reporters, before declaring Derna a disaster zone.
Images of devastation
Storm Daniel also hit Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece but Libya has been the most severely impacted in what one UN official has described as “a calamity of epic proportions”.
According to one video posted on social media, hospital workers in the city of Bayda were seen trying to sweep away water that had flooded the building.
Other videos showed apartment blocks in the town of Marj surrounded by flood waters and aerial images showed huge swathes of land covered in water.
The flooding has prompted an international response, with an increasing number of countries deploying rescue teams and aid to the North African state.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said it had sent three plane loads full of aid and rescue workers on Monday night.
The UAE and Qatar also said they were sending help to areas afflicted by the storm and subsequent flooding.
Turkey and Qatar have traditionally supported the Tripoli government, while the UAE has backed Haftar, but a rapprochement between Ankara and Abu Dhabi has resulted in a simmering down of the conflict in Libya, though tensions remain.
According to meteorologists, Storm Daniel formed over the Ionian Sea near Greece and Bulgaria earlier this month and made its way towards the southern Mediterranean.
When it reached Libya, it brought winds of more than 80km per hour and heavy rains.
Morocco quake, over 5,000 killed or injured.
Rescuers are having trouble reaching remote rural areas that were hit the hardest
11 Sep, 2023 18:01 RT
At least 2,681 people have died from the Moroccan earthquake as of Monday and 2,501 have been injured, according to state-run media. King Mohammed VI has declared three days of national mourning.
The Casablanca-based 2M TV channel reported the updated death toll on Monday morning, as rescue crews dug through the rubble in the mountains south of Marrakesh.
The 6.8 magnitude quake struck on Friday evening, at a depth of 26km under the Atlas Mountains. Around 1,500 of the deaths were in the Al-Haouz province. Some villages were “completely destroyed” according to the surviving residents who spoke with rescuers and the media. Of the 200 residents in Azgour, a village near the epicenter, 15 were killed.
Morocco has dispatched the military to help civilian rescue crews, but roads and passes through the mountains have been damaged or blocked by debris. Heavy machinery has been deployed to clear the roads and helicopters are trying to reach the most remote settlements.
A relief convoy of the Moroccan army reached Asni, the town closest to the epicenter, on Monday morning and started setting up a field hospital to treat the injured. The hospital has 30 beds in 16 tents, with a staff of 24 doctors and 48 nurses, Colonel Youssef Qamouss told CNN. The most common injuries are burns, fractures and cuts, he added.
Friday’s earthquake was the worst to strike Morocco since 1960, when at least 12,000 people died in a 5.8 magnitude tremor in Agadir.
But how can (7) they call on him (Jesus Christ) to save (7) them unless they believe in Him (Jesus Christ)? (7) And how can they believe in Him (7) (Jesus Christ) if they have never heard about (7) Him (Jesus Christ)? And how can they hear (7) about Him (Jesus Christ) unless someone tells them?” Romans 10:14 (777777)
In His Service,
Night Watchman
Paul Rolland
Night Watchman Ministries
Make Your (7) Decision for Christ NOW!!!!!!! Time is Up!!!!!!!
Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:
The ABCs (7) of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)
A. (7) Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask (7) God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.
. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).
. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).
B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that (7) Jesus Christ is who He claimed to (7) be; that He was both fully God (7) and fully man and that we are (7) saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. (7) Put your trust in Him as your (7) only hope of salvation. Become a son (7) or daughter of God by receiving Christ. (7777777) 7×7
. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).
C. Call upon His name, Confess (7) with your heart and with your lips (7) that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).
. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).
. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).
. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).
. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).
. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).
. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).
. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).
. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).
True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:
Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.