Derna is a city with about 125,000 people. The storm caused a lot of damage there. Buildings were wrecked, cars were flipped over, and the streets were covered in mud and debris after the dams broke.
In Derna, they've already found over 1,000 dead bodies. People gathered outside a busy hospital, hoping to find their family members under the sheets covering the bodies.
The same kind of destruction happened on the way to Derna. Cars were turned upside down on the side of the road, trees were knocked down, and houses were flooded and empty.
Hichem Abu Chkiouat, who is in charge of aviation in the eastern part of Libya, said, "We found more than 1,000 dead people in Derna. About 25% of the city is gone. Many buildings collapsed." He also said that he expects the total number of dead people in the whole country to be more than 2,500 because more and more people are missing.
The storm didn't only affect Derna. Other cities in the east, like Benghazi, were also hit hard. Tamer Ramadan, who leads a group from the Red Cross, said, "A lot of people died, and we know that around 10,000 people are missing." This is really bad.
The United Nations is sending help. They're getting teams together to go and help in Libya.
Impact
Countries like Turkey are sending things to help, like rescue equipment, boats, generators, and food. People in Derna are very worried and want to go home to find their family.
A man named Mostafa Salem, who is 39 years old, said he lost 30 of his family members in Derna. He said most people were sleeping when the storm got worse. They didn't know it was coming. As the evening went on, they started getting messages saying that the water at one of the dams was rising, and there were strange sounds coming from it.
At Tripoli Airport in the northwest of Libya, a woman cried loudly when she heard that most of her family were dead or missing. Her brother-in-law, Walid Abdulati, said, "We're not talking about just one or two people who died. It's as if up to 10 people from each family are gone."
Libya is divided into two political factions, one in the east and one in the west. Since the popular uprising in 2011, which was supported by NATO, the country has been in turmoil with factional conflicts causing a breakdown in public services.
The government in Tripoli, which is recognized internationally, doesn't have control over the eastern regions. However, they have sent assistance to Derna.
The Refugee Council of Norway reported that tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes, and there is no possibility of returning.
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