An aerial picture shows a view of the damage in the aftermath of a devastating flood in eastern Libya's city of Derna, on September 16, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
The mother of five knew something was wrong with the rain. The windows of her home in the Libyan city of Derna had started leaking, and when she opened them she saw a wall of water sweeping away screaming children and adults. Floating debris killed people in its path.
The deluge that tore through eastern Libya in the early hours of September 11 eventually tore down half of the woman’s two-story building. She took refuge on the rooftop alongside her husband and children.
She described the ordeal of watching the rising waters in an interview with Bloomberg Green, requesting that her name not be made public for fear of repercussions from Libyan authorities.
"From 3 to 4 a.m. the flood kept on and on,” the woman said. "We kept praying for the sun to be up and it just wouldn’t. It was the longest night of my life.” The family survived and eventually fled to the eastern city of Ajdabiya.
More than 5,000 Libyans died in the flood and more than 10,000 remain missing, according to the United Nations. So many people ended up dragged by the torrent of mud - the populations of entire buildings, in some cases - that dead bodies continued washing ashore days later.
Political instability, a decade of civil war, crumbling infrastructure, and weak emergency systems all played a role in the tragedy that unfolded in the eastern region of Jabal al Akhdar.
Add climate change to the mix, and the result is the deadliest and costliest storm ever recorded in the Mediterranean region.
"Many of the world’s challenges coalesced in an awful hellscape,” UN Secretary General António Guterres told global leaders during his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday.
Libyans "were victims many times over - victims of years of conflict, of climate chaos, of leaders far and near who failed to find a way to peace.”
All these issues will continue to weigh on Libya’s recovery from a climate-amplified disaster and likely make it harder for the country to prepare for the higher temperatures, drought and extreme rain to come.
The fragile state of the country’s institutions make it difficult to tap into the pool of climate-relief money, even as more support becomes available through international programs.
Last year’s COP27 climate summit saw a historic breakthrough to create a loss-and-damage fund to assist poor countries battered by extreme weather.
But that fund isn’t active yet, and it’s hard to identify ready sources of support in the aftermath of Libya’s biggest climate disaster.
Warming temperatures are going to hit the world’s less stable societies with extreme force.
Flooding has become more intense, with disasters unfolding more suddenly, in part because the atmosphere holds 7% more water vapor for every degree Celsius of warming.
Libya, with its decrepit infrastructure, has already warmed by more than a degree since 1900. If greenhouse gas emissions remain unchanged, the country’s average temperatures will rise 2.2C by 2050 and by 4C at the end of the century.
"What happened in Derna is the kind of thing we’re going to see more and more in countries like Libya,” said Ciarán Donnelly, a senior vice president for crisis response at the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit that helps people affected by humanitarian crises.
"Fragile and in-conflict states are significantly more vulnerable to climate change because of the deterioration of social services and lack of maintenance of infrastructure.”
