Derna in Libya has been devastated by a terrible flood that has turned it from a bustling port that welcomed fishing boats and ships filled with commerce and people into a graveyard overflowing with debris, wrecked cars, and dead corpses.
60-year-old tugboat captain Ali al-Mismari remembered the night of September 10 when Storm Daniel’s heavy rains pounded the city in eastern Libya, breaching two dams and eradicating entire neighborhoods.
According to Mismari, he first intended to leave the harbor with his boat, the “Irasa,” in order to protect the crew and prevent damage to the boat.
He was unable to see the seawalls enclosing the harbor or find a safe escape due to the turmoil of the storm and the fast increasing water levels.
To clean the harbor’s bottom, crews from outside and locally were brought in, along with the tugs.
Now, things found by divers have been used to pave the pathways that encircle the port.
Head of the crisis management committee for the port authority Captain Mohamed Chalibta stated that the search was focused on “objects that had sunk in the port,” including automobiles with persons still believed to be inside.
An Emirati crew combed one area of the harbor with boats and jet skis.
‘Zero visibility’
However, one of the divers said that there was nearly “zero visibility” and that the water was dark brown and loaded with muck that had been pushed in by the storm.
Colonel Ali Abdullah al-Naqbi, head of the Emirati search operation, was providing instructions to his group and emphasizing the need of taking all necessary safeguards.
Scuba divers who were restrained by safety ropes descended from their yellow boat one at a time.
After a little while, one came out of the murky water and said, “We attached (a rope) to a car. We have no visible evidence.
Meanwhile, a different diver discovered a second automobile.
Other team members assisted the divers in getting rid of leaves that had become trapped on them and gave them fresh water to splash on their faces as they boarded their boat.
In collaboration with Libyan officials, the Emirati crew requested a crane to lift one of the damaged wrecks out of the ocean.
Survivor in fridge –
Mud, water, and what seemed to be human remains flowed out of the truck as it was being removed.
When the vehicle was lowered into the pier, Libyan men in white jackets, gloves, and face masks seized over and began searching the car for bodies, but this time they didn’t find any.
The clearance of the port is expected to take a lengthy period, according to officials.
Rescuers are also looking for survivors in the waters outside the harbor since, according to marine experts, the current may have taken numerous dead eastward.
The salinity of the sea helps to preserve remains, making the identification procedure simpler than for corpses recovered on land, according to Hafez Obeid, chief of the Libyan forensic team.
Captain Mismari of the Irasa said that “private fishing boats were the first to rush to the rescue” on the disaster’s fateful night.
Technician Taoufik Akrouch, 61, who was standing next to him, remembered that “the water level rose above the dock by about one and a half metres (five feet)”.
The crew activated the Irasa’s engines when it started severely tossing, then cut the mooring lines.
They heard a cries for rescue at first light.
According to two crew members, they discovered a survivor: a nude lady floating inside a refrigerator.
She allegedly enquired, “Where is my sister?”
An Egyptian survivor who was also rescued by Mismari’s squad was unable to explain how he arrived at the harbor.
According to Mismari, “He had been sleeping and then found himself there.” “Perhaps he had been asleep.”
