Why in news?

• More than 5,000 people are known to have died and thousands more are missing after devastating floods swept through the Libyan port city of Derna.
• Entire neighbourhoods disappeared into the sea as a huge tsunami-like torrent of water swept through the city.

What’s in today’s article?

• Geographical location of Derna
• News Summary

Geographical location of Derna

• 
• Derna is a port city in eastern Libya. It is located on the Mediterranean coast between Benghazi and Tobruk.
• It is also located at the eastern end of the Jebel Akhdar, or "green mountains".
• The city is bisected by the Wadi Derna, a seasonal river that flows from the highlands to the south.

News Summary: Libya’s catastrophic flooding

• More than 5,000 people were killed, about 10,000 went missing, and 30,000 were displaced in Libya after torrential rains caused flooding.
• The flooding burst dams, swept away buildings, and destroyed nearly a quarter of the eastern port city of Derna.

What caused this catastrophic damage to Derna?

• Experts suggest three key factors coalesced into one catastrophe, causing the most devastating floods to have hit North Africa in almost a century.
• These three factors are - extreme weather, vulnerable geography, and crumbling infrastructure.
• Extreme Weather
  • Libya’s eastern region, witnessed extreme rainfall from Sept 10 to 11.
    • Eg., in Derna, the average monthly rainfall in the whole of September is under 1.5 mm. However, it exceeded 150 mm in about two days.
  • The rains were accompanied by strong winds of up to 80 kph.
    • The water was brought by Storm Daniel which reached Libya on September 10.
    • Formed in Greece, this storm is also responsible for causing floods and deaths in Spain, Turkey and Bulgaria earlier this month.
    • Before reaching Libya, Daniel transitioned into what is known as a ‘medicane,’ or tropical-like cyclone that occasionally forms over the Mediterranean Sea.
    • The storm became stronger as it drew energy from the abnormally warm waters.
      • The Mediterranean has been 2 to 3 degree Celsius warmer this year than in the past.
      • Medicanes are known to be weak storms that don’t last long.
      • But higher sea surface temperatures help them become stronger and last longer.
    • It unloaded excessive rainfall over northeastern Libya, where rain flowing down the mountainous terrain overwhelmed dams.
• Vulnerable geography
• The floods seem to have caused the most destruction in Derna.
• One reason behind the city’s widespread damage is its location.
• It is situated at the end of a valley and bisected by the Wadi Derna, a seasonal river that flows from mountains to the south (towards the sea) and is normally protected from flooding by dams.
• The unusually heavy rain overwhelmed two crucial dams and destroyed several bridges.
• 
• Crumbling infrastructure
  • The collapse of the two dams in Derna highlights the dilapidated infrastructure of Libya.
  • The country has been gutted by a war between two rival factions for more than a decade.
    • In Tripoli, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah leads Libya’s internationally recognised government.
    • In Benghazi, the rival prime minister, Ossama Hamad, heads the eastern administration, which is backed by powerful military commander Khalifa Hiftar.
  • In the tussle for power, focus on socio-economic issues, including maintaining and developing infrastructure has been put on the backburner.
  • Moreover, as flooding is quite rare in the region, Libya wasn’t prepared to face the calamity.
    • There are no flood-resilient structures or roads in the country, especially in Derna.
    • Any sort of early-warning system regarding such disasters also doesn’t exist.