AP PHOTOS: Satellite images show flood devastation that killed more than 11,000 in Libya

Advertisement

Advertise with us

DERNA, Libya (AP) — Images taken by satellite show the physical devastation from a flood that killed at least 11,300 people in the eastern Libyan city of Derna.

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2023 (1135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DERNA, Libya (AP) — Images taken by satellite show the physical devastation from a flood that killed at least 11,300 people in the eastern Libyan city of Derna.

Two dams above Derna burst early Monday under the pressure from rain dropped by a storm. The pent-up water swept blocks of low-lying downtown Derna out to the Mediterranean Sea.

Many said they heard loud explosions as the dams exploded. A flood several meters (many feet) high rolled down a mountainside into the city.

This combination of satellite images from Maxar Technologies shows a coastal roadway in Derna, Libya, on July 1, 2023, top, and the same flood damaged area on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night, Sept. 10, 2023. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions and realized that dams outside the city had collapsed. Flash floods were unleashed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea. (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This combination of satellite images from Maxar Technologies shows a coastal roadway in Derna, Libya, on July 1, 2023, top, and the same flood damaged area on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night, Sept. 10, 2023. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions and realized that dams outside the city had collapsed. Flash floods were unleashed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea. (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies via AP)

Images made about 400 miles above the earth’s surface show that the storm left a brown layer of mud and dirt across the city.

Untold numbers are buried under mud and debris that includes overturned cars and chunks of concrete. The death toll soared to 11,300 as search efforts continue, Marie el-Drese, secretary-general of the Libyan Red Crescent, told The Associated Press by phone Thursday.

She said that an additional 10,100 had been reported missing. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500.

The satellite pictures show dirt and debris stretching out to sea into Derna’s shallow waters, which appeared visibly brown near the shoreline. Many bodies washed out to sea have come back with the tide, rescue workers say.

The floods have displaced at least 30,000 people in Derna, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, and several thousand others were forced to leave their homes in other eastern towns, it said.

This combination of satellite images from Maxar Technologies shows a neighborhood of Derna, Libya, on July 1, 2023, top, and the same flood damaged area on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night, Sept. 10, 2023. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions and realized that dams outside the city had collapsed. Flash floods were unleashed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea. (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This combination of satellite images from Maxar Technologies shows a neighborhood of Derna, Libya, on July 1, 2023, top, and the same flood damaged area on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night, Sept. 10, 2023. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions and realized that dams outside the city had collapsed. Flash floods were unleashed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea. (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies via AP)

Bridges and other basic infrastructure have also been wiped out, especially buildings near the Wadi Derna river.

Because of the damage to roads, aid only began trickling into the city on Tuesday evening.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Hutterite colonies embrace the manufacturing business – while staying faithful to their way of life

Gabrielle Piché 13 minute read Preview

Hutterite colonies embrace the manufacturing business – while staying faithful to their way of life

Gabrielle Piché 13 minute read 5:02 PM CDT

Tucked away at Oak Bluff Hutterite Colony, past rows of communal housing and farm buildings, Aaron Maendel tinkers in a laboratory.

Black-and-white sheets smeared with grey-test formulas cover a counter. A Thermotron — a refrigerator-looking machine — is powered off but standing by to simulate any desired temperature.

Maendel moves to a worktop littered with partly full mixing cups. He pulls out a small, rectangular sample — a sheet showing the drying time of his new fixation, floor coatings.

“Very simple, actually. Very simple machine. Drags a stick through the mud,” Maendel says.

Read
5:02 PM CDT

AP PHOTOS: Satellite images show flood devastation that killed more than 11,000 in Libya

Yousef Mourad, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

AP PHOTOS: Satellite images show flood devastation that killed more than 11,000 in Libya

Yousef Mourad, The Associated Press 3 minute read Thursday, Sep. 14, 2023

DERNA, Libya (AP) — Images taken by satellite show the physical devastation from a flood that killed at least 11,300 people in the eastern Libyan city of Derna.

Two dams above Derna burst early Monday under the pressure from rain dropped by a storm. The pent-up water swept blocks of low-lying downtown Derna out to the Mediterranean Sea.

Many said they heard loud explosions as the dams exploded. A flood several meters (many feet) high rolled down a mountainside into the city.

Images made about 400 miles above the earth’s surface show that the storm left a brown layer of mud and dirt across the city.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 14, 2023

Police HQ report ‘outrageous’: Kinew

Joyanne Pursaga 6 minute read Preview

Police HQ report ‘outrageous’: Kinew

Joyanne Pursaga 6 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026

Premier Wab Kinew says public inquiry findings that taxpayers were overcharged more than $40 million for the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project and two city leaders broke the public trust are “outrageous.”

Inquiry commissioner Garth Smorang’s report, which was released Monday, concluded former mayor Sam Katz “violated the public trust” and council code of conduct, while the city’s former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl suffered from a “complete lack of a moral compass.”

Smorang also found the city was overcharged $43.3 million for the project, with $42 million of that going to key contractor Caspian Projects.

“It’s outrageous that people who were elected betrayed the public here in the city. It’s outrageous that there were people in business who ripped you off, ripped me off — I was paying property taxes in Winnipeg at the time — and ripped all of us off to the tune of $43.3 million. That’s crazy,” said Kinew.

Read
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026

Gillingham says Portage and Main underground should stay open

Joyanne Pursaga 6 minute read Preview

Gillingham says Portage and Main underground should stay open

Joyanne Pursaga 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 7:27 PM CDT

Scott Gillingham said he hopes to keep the circular concourse beneath Portage Avenue and Main Street open, if he’s re-elected mayor next week.

“I would like to find a way for it to stay,” said Gillingham during the mayoral debate hosted by CJOB Wednesday.

The downtown intersection reopened to pedestrians at street level in June 2025.

When he first supported that hotly debated reopening in 2024, Gillingham called for the underground mall to be closed. At the time, the city estimated it would take $73 million and up to five years of traffic-snarling construction to repair the leaking membrane under the street that protects the properties below.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 7:27 PM CDT

Henderson crosswalk has glaring safety gap, say researchers months after pedestrian killed

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Preview

Henderson crosswalk has glaring safety gap, say researchers months after pedestrian killed

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

Six months after a fatal collision at a crosswalk on Henderson Highway, two traffic safety researchers question why the intersection remains an outlier that is missing key flashing lights.

The City of Winnipeg is being urged to install “backflashers” to better protect road users moving in all directions at the intersection where a 32-year-old father died in the spring.

“It’s these little, mundane, non-sexy engineering problems that can cause everything right up to fatality,” said Curt Pankratz, an associate professor at the University of Winnipeg who studies traffic engineering and policymaking.

On April 19, shortly before sunrise, Gabe Beardy was struck when he was crossing the six-lane thoroughfare at Neil Avenue.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

WAG-Qaumajuq names first Indigenous director, CEO

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read Preview

WAG-Qaumajuq names first Indigenous director, CEO

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read 5:16 PM CDT

John Mahli Lawa’ Hampton has been selected to take the helm of Canada’s oldest civic art gallery, WAG-Qaumajuq announced Thursday.

Read
5:16 PM CDT