Residents of the Libyan city of Derna had been calling for repairs for several years, according to a man who lived close to one of the two dams that burst during Storm Daniel, unleashing a tsunami-like surge of water last week.
“Two years ago, the big dam already had leaks, even though it was only half-full,” 48-year-old Abdelqader al-Omrani told the AFP news agency.
“We had warned the municipality and demanded repairs.”
After surviving the floods that claimed the lives of six of his relatives, Mr. Omrani was taken to a hospital in the city of Benghazi where he spoke to AFP from his hospital bed.
He managed to escape the rising water by fleeing to his roof terrace, then climbing on to a tree and up a mountain slope.
He explained how his hometown had “no buildings, no trees, only the mountain and no living soul” when the waters started to recede.
“I experienced the apocalypse, without exaggeration.”
The local government now had “deaths on their conscience,” he told AFP.
Source-BBC
