Members of Libyan community in Ireland express shock, heartbreak over flooding devastation

Members of the Irish-Libyan community have expressed shock and heartbreak over the devastation caused by flooding which has killed at least 5,100 people according to health officials.

Storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many eastern towns, but worst-hit has been the city of Derna, which had a population of around 90,000 before the floods.

[ Libya buries thousands after deadly floods as search teams look for survivors ]

Dublin-born Irish Libyan Tibrah Bazama was in Derna’s neighbouring city of Benghazi with her parents when the storm hit, having travelled over for a family funeral.

“When we first arrived here last week there was a warning to say that there was a storm coming and they were naming it a medicine, which is like a Mediterranean hurricane, and it was the first that Libya has ever come across, especially at this time of year,” Ms Bazama told The Irish Times.

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“Usually when you come to Libya, it’s a very hot climate like, it’s in the Sahara Desert,” she explained, but said that she and her family did not fully register the extent of the warning, because they were busy with the funeral.

The army imposed a two-day curfew, Ms Bazama said, closing all shops, clinics, and asking residents to stay indoors.

Areas within Benghazi were flooded, and there were strong winds causing debris to spread, with many road signs damaged.

“When my sisters were messaging me from Dublin to ask how things are in Benghazi, I was saying to them, like, it was fine, the storm wasn’t too bad, and this is all that’s happened us et cetera,” Ms Bazama said.

She told her sisters this the day before the dam burst in Derna.

“It sent I think what they’re saying is 30 million cubic metres of water just gushing down towards the city of Derna, and it just basically engulfed everything in its path,” she says.

Many shops and businesses in Benghazi have closed in mourning, with many owners having lost a family member, sibling, friend, or all of the above.

“There’s a very sombre kind of feeling in Benghazi at the minute as a result of the thousands of people who have died in the neighbouring city.

“Every time I open up Facebook, or Instagram or anything like that, I find a lot of people have put up posts with like lists and lists of whole generations of families who are wiped out by it,” Ms Bazama said.

“It’s just, it’s really disheartening as well to think that something like that, like a natural disaster can just happen and just completely get rid of a whole a whole family unit.”

Even Ms Bazama’s cousins who she is over visiting, have lost at least three family members, an uncle and his kids, in the floods.

“Nobody is left without some sort of a connection with someone in Derna who has passed, and so it’s just very sad altogether here,” she said.

The access point between Benghazi and Derna was completely destroyed in the storm, causing access issues to the city, but “there’s just convoys and convoys of aid leaving Benghazi to access Derna.”

Ms Bazama’s cousin works in Benina Airport in Benghazi and she says he told her that there has been aeroplanes of aid landing in the airport from areas such as Palestine, “which is just amazing to see.

“They would be themselves so exposed to this sort of infliction that they’re kind of almost used to it, which is so sad but they’re still out here coming out to help the Libyan people,” she said.

“There is just a general sadness that’s seeping in the air at the minute in Benghazi, everyone seems to know someone who passed away or, even if they don’t, it’s still their homeland, it’s their country.”

Tibrah’s brother, Radwan Bazama, likened the devastation in Derna to as if an “area from the top of O’Connell Street to Trinity College and out to Dublin Port” was wiped out overnight.

“It is estimated that one quarter of Derna city has been wiped out with the death toll expected to reach over 20,000,” Mr Bazama said.

The city is built next to the Derna Valley, Mediterranean Sea, and the Green Mountains, making it one of the wettest areas in Libya, he explained.

“Two dams burst, causing floodwater to rush down the valley, crash through the city, and empty into the sea. Taking everything in its path, including homes with entire families who were sleeping in their beds. Many of the homes hosted two or three generations of the one family.

“The devastation is hard to comprehend ... It is devastating to hear from Derna, ‘we wait on the shoreline at dawn for the sea to bring us back our loved ones who were washed away’,” Mr Bazama said.

There are approximately 3,000 Libyans living across Ireland, many of whom have lost relatives, but “the community has come together to console each other at this harrowing time,” he added.

Irish organisations have opened charity opportunities where people can donate directly to support emergency efforts via islamireland.ie.

Tibrah Bazama owns Munch Café with her sisters in Dundrum, and they are donating all profits they make this weekend to Libyan aid efforts.