Dams bursts in Libya

[Byker28i]

Sounds very nasty over 5,000 dead, 10,000 missing
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/13/why-did-d...

[Byker28i]

Or burst even

[Murph7355]

The destruction was incredible.

Probably a perfect storm of the power of the water and the poor quality buildings.

[Byker28i]

Some of the images and videos are incredible,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/libya

You wonder how that happens, the loss of life multiplied by a curfew rather than evacuation

[Murph7355]

Byker28i said:

Some of the images and videos are incredible,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/libya

You wonder how that happens, the loss of life multiplied by a curfew rather than evacuation

I only caught bits of it on the news, but from what I heard I think they initially told people to get out of Dodge...and then when the weather worsened told them to stay indoors.

With 100mph winds and st loads of water everywhere, there would seem to be logic in the "stay indoors" bit. I'm not sure anyone could reasonably have expected whole tower blocks to get washed away!

[poo at Paul's]

Stuff of nightmares. Poor buggers

[TTmonkey]

Could be 20000 dead. One of the biggest disasters since the Tsunami.

[pquinn]

Looking at the terrain there's a nice deep valley formed from draining a wide area, and the city was built right across the outflow. Historically it must have flowed heavily but I guess not for a long time.

The weather plus the dams failing from total neglect didn't leave anyone much chance.

[TTmonkey]

The weather was very odd. Storm Daniel formed over Greece, travelled south west into the med, swivelled, travelled south east towards Libya and strengthened to tropical storm force, not far off hurricane force. It was also very slow moving.

I don’t remember ever seeing reports of such an event before, but I’m pretty sure it’s rather rare at best.

[Digga]

pquinn said:

Looking at the terrain there's a nice deep valley formed from draining a wide area, and the city was built right across the outflow. Historically it must have flowed heavily but I guess not for a long time.

The weather plus the dams failing from total neglect didn't leave anyone much chance.

Yes, looking at the Google satellite imagery, there are two dams but the wadi looked like it seldom flowed. May have been lucky with dams for some years.

Absolutely awful tragedy. The sea is sending bodies back ashore in the hundreds. Those poor people. News says all foreign aid money gobbled up by government wages and no infrastructure investment. Even worse than UK.

[GroundEffect]

Horrendous. And just says after the Morocco earthquake. Mother nature isn't happy.

[hidetheelephants]

Digga said:

pquinn said:

Looking at the terrain there's a nice deep valley formed from draining a wide area, and the city was built right across the outflow. Historically it must have flowed heavily but I guess not for a long time.

The weather plus the dams failing from total neglect didn't leave anyone much chance.

Yes, looking at the Google satellite imagery, there are two dams but the wadi looked like it seldom flowed. May have been lucky with dams for some years.

Absolutely awful tragedy. The sea is sending bodies back ashore in the hundreds. Those poor people. News says all foreign aid money gobbled up by government wages and no infrastructure investment. Even worse than UK.

What's foreign aid got to do with it? Libya is an oil state, the thieves are enriching themselves with petrodollars, not flogging stolen WFP grain.

[Biker 1]

hidetheelephants said:

What's foreign aid got to do with it? Libya is an oil state, the thieves are enriching themselves with petrodollars, not flogging stolen WFP grain.

This.
Reminds me of Iraq & all the other places 'we' attempted to get rid of the ruling junta & install western democracy. I doubt things would have been anywhere near as bad if Gaddafi was still in power.

[isaldiri]

Biker 1 said:

This.
Reminds me of Iraq & all the other places 'we' attempted to get rid of the ruling junta & install western democracy. I doubt things would have been anywhere near as bad if Gaddafi was still in power.

Rather debatable if this particular incident wouldn't have happened under Gaddafi I suppose but at least he'd definitely string up some people who are deemed responsible for it.... But in any case, thousands of libyans getting killed isn't something that agitates people here very much anyway (certainly now anyway) so it'll just disappear into the morass of the 'lots of other people dying around the world that we just shrug at'.

[gotoPzero]

Looks like if you were in its path it did not matter much where you were the water was taking over 3-4 story buildings.
I doubt there is much in the way of rescue / medical so its probably going to be pretty bad for a good while.
After that the rebuilding will probably take a long time as the government is hardly bristling with money.

[Byker28i]

One suspects there's worse news to come about the death count, then they'll be the missing people that will probably never be found.

[Vasco]

Seems that the 'authorities' (whoever that is in practice) were specifically warned about the condition of the first dam but did little/nothing. When it gave way it was inevitable that the smaller one would also be washed away.

[Skeptisk]

isaldiri said:

Biker 1 said:

This.
Reminds me of Iraq & all the other places 'we' attempted to get rid of the ruling junta & install western democracy. I doubt things would have been anywhere near as bad if Gaddafi was still in power.

Rather debatable if this particular incident wouldn't have happened under Gaddafi I suppose but at least he'd definitely string up some people who are deemed responsible for it.... But in any case, thousands of libyans getting killed isn't something that agitates people here very much anyway (certainly now anyway) so it'll just disappear into the morass of the 'lots of other people dying around the world that we just shrug at'.

It seems to be getting a lot less media coverage than the earthquake in Morocco despite far more people dying. Or perhaps the natural disaster in Morocco used up the coverage for this month and Libya was just “unlucky” to come second.

The media just moves on. Are we hearing anything about the floods in Pakistan last year? I would think they are still suffering massively from that.

[andy_s]

Haftar strips public infrastructure for money, corruption is rife, investment non-existent, no central government, lack of maintenance going back a decades, previous warnings ignored, squabbling responses, freak weather [1x 50yrs] and voila. The news seemed to milk this story for its climate credentials, but its more about Libya being a lawless state.

[Digga]

hidetheelephants said:

What's foreign aid got to do with it? Libya is an oil state, the thieves are enriching themselves with petrodollars, not flogging stolen WFP grain.

Yes, sorry, you are correct, it's more the nation's own wealth that's been withheld from the local government and infrastructure.

With this and the quake in Morocco, Red Cross/Crescent and MSF etc. must be stretched pretty thin in North Africa right now.