Libya: the 'tsunami' that washed away a city

Climate change may have made the storm more likely, but many blame failures of governance for the scale of the tragedy

Libya Derna
Some 100,000 people are stranded and in urgent need of food, clean water, shelter and medical care.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

As the rain drummed down, four siblings living in a waterfront apartment block in the Libyan city of Derna were initially unconcerned. They scrolled on their phones that evening, played games and laughed when the youngest of them put on a life jacket. But in the early hours of 11 September, sirens started to blare. Unable to sleep, they grew fearful. 

"The noise was getting much louder," one of them, Amna, told the BBC in a phone interview. "My brother said he could see water covering the street." When it started to rise, she grabbed their passports and they joined neighbours who were migrating from the first floor to the third. Then the water reached the third floor, and the siblings moved higher, and then higher again, until eventually, they were standing on the roof of their seven-storey block. 

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