Libya floods updates: Hundreds feared dead as Storm Daniel lashes Derna

The National Petroleum Company, whose main oilfields and terminals are in eastern Libya, declared “a state of maximum alert” and suspended flights between production sites where activity was drastically reduced.

Meanwhile, a Derna city council official described the situation in the city as “catastrophic” and in need of “national and international intervention”, speaking to the local TV channel Libya Alahrar.

He reported the collapse of four main bridges, two buildings and two dams in Derna, a city of more than 100,000 people that lies in a river wadi 900km (559 miles) east of Tripoli.

Libya has declared three areas in its eastern Cyrenaica province a disaster area due to floods and asked for international help, the Libyan Presidential Council has said in a statement.

Hani Shennib, president of the national council on US-Libya relations, said not a lot of voices can be heard from Derna because everything has been “cut-off completely” from the world.

“There’s no internet connection, no electricity … the magnitude of the disaster that has happened in the city is just growing by the minute,” Shennib told Al Jazeera.

According to him, Storm Daniel has caused a sudden and abrupt increase in the water load which led to the total destruction of the city’s major dam.

“Numbers are expected to grow … to at least 5,000 victims,” Shennib said.

“The tragedy that is happening there is not only absent from the international community but also, there are challenges with reaching out to inform the world of what is happening.”

Guma El-Gamaty, a Libyan academic and politician who heads the Taghyeer Party in Tripoli, has said that in times of catastrophe and disaster, “everybody is rising above all of these differences and polarisations”.

People are mobilising from all over the country and are “coming together to help on this humanitarian challenge,” El-Gamaty told Al Jazeera.

They are attempting to take “whatever they can in terms of equipment and supplies” to the affected cities in the east, especially Derna.

Derna is “very difficult to get to, and the information is that it’s really disastrous there, it’s a catastrophe”, he said.

El-Gamaty said what is needed in terms of aid is “far beyond the means of these two governments”, and has appealed to international organisations for help.

Two Red Crescent workers have died as they attempted to rescue people from the floodwaters in Derna, the organisation’s branch in the city of Tobruk has said.

It is still difficult to communicate with anyone in Derna, but the city appears to have been heavily damaged, and more bad news is expected.

Farms appear to be submerged in al-Marj, one of several cities in the eastern side of the country that has been struck by Storm Daniel.

More than 2,000 people have died, while 5,000 to 6,000 were missing due to floods in the city of Derna, an eastern Libyan military spokesperson has said.

Hamad, the east’s self-proclaimed premier, earlier said that at least 2,000 people were feared dead in the city.

It is so far unclear where the number is coming from. Medics and aid organisations have not yet released any death toll figures.

Eastern Libya’s Almostakbal TV said heavy floods have washed away vehicles.

It also broadcast images showing a collapsed road between Susa and Shahat, the home to the Greek-founded and UNESCO-listed archaeological site Cyrene.

Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah who heads the Government of National Unity in Tripoli has ordered “relevant agencies” to assist in search and rescue operations.

“I’ve instructed the Ministry of Health and all relevant agencies to quickly provide assistance,” Dbeibah said.

“Relief convoys will be dispatched to all cities affected by this incident. We will respond with all available resources,” he added.

Safieldin Buheiba with the Bayda city council has said that the situation is “completely out of control”.

“We announce with regret, that the situation is completely out of control. We call on all government officials to intervene to save … what can be saved,” he said.

“Governments are responsible for people’s lives. We request the security services to provide assistance,” he added.

Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina said people in the city are watching as “their vehicles are washed away”, while patients and staff were forced to evacuate several hospitals.

Libya has for years had two rival governments, each supported by militias and foreign governments, which has largely affected the country’s development and access to aid.

An internationally recognised administration, the Government of National Unity, is based in Tripoli and headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, while a rival self-proclaimed government is based in eastern Libya’s Benghazi.

Most of the destruction from Storm Daniel appears to be in territory controlled by the eastern government, headed by Osama Hamad.

The lack of a single functioning government means that the war-torn country has suffered shortfalls in development and infrastructure, as well as difficulties in cooperation over aid access.

Getting confirmed news out of Derna is proving to be very difficult as a result of communication lines going down. One journalist originally from Derna, Jawher Ali, described what he has been able to glean from his contacts in the city, before communication was cut.

“The torrents have not stopped yet,” Ali told Al Jazeera from Istanbul, where he is currently based. “It has invaded the streets of the city and knocked buildings over. After the sun rose [on Monday morning], many streets in the city were destroyed.”

“Residents have seen dead bodies floating on water… it is so sad that they feel unable to do anything for them,” he added. Ali called for international help to assist the victims. “They need equipment that the Libyan authorities are unable to provide, such as helicopters,” he explained.

Footage on social media and broadcast by eastern Libya’s Almostakbal TV showed people stranded on the roofs of their vehicles calling for help and waters washing away cars.

“The missing are in the thousands, and the dead exceed 2,000,” Osama Hamad, the prime minister of a self-proclaimed government in eastern Libya, told Almasar TV.

“Entire neighbourhoods in Derna have disappeared, along with their residents … swept away by water.”

Storm Daniel has also hit the cities of Benghazi, Susa, Bayda and al-Marj.

At least 12 people have been reported dead in the eastern town of Bayda, the town’s main medical centre said.

Another seven people were reported dead in the coastal town of Susa in northeastern Libya, according to the Ambulance and Emergency Authority.

Seven others were reported dead in the towns of Shahatt and Omar al-Mokhtar.

One other person was confirmed dead on Sunday. The man was stuck in his car and surrounded by flooding in the eastern town of al-Marj, according to Walid al-Arfi, spokesperson for the emergency response agency in eastern Libya.

Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina, reporting from the Libyan capital Tripoli in the country’s west, gave a description of the geographic setting of Derna, explaining why it may possibly have been so badly affected. “[It is] completely surrounded by mountains, and these dams collapsed,” Traina said.

“Some experts are saying more than 30 million cubic square metres of water was dumped into the city, and we’re starting to see pictures of entire neighbourhoods destroyed,” he added.

The Red Crescent in Benghazi said that Storm Daniel has killed at least 150 people dead in Libya’s Derna city, the head of the organisation in Benghazi, Kais Fhakeri, told Al Jazeera.

But the death toll could rise much higher. The prime minister of one of a self-proclaimed government in eastern Libya, Osama Hamad, said that more than 2,000 people have been killed in Derna, although he did not cite any sources.

Water levels in the city rose as high as three metres (10 feet), after two dams collapsed, the Derna municipal council has said.