The town of Derna in Libya, devastated by storm Daniel, is home to a French field hospital. Firefighters and civil security rescuers will be able to care for between 50 and 100 patients per day.
Derna “is a city which is in shock, but which is organizing itself and starting to welcome international aid”, explained Friday September 15 on franceinfo Lieutenant-Colonel Marie Peucelle, head of the civil security detachment sent to Libya after the deadly floods caused by storm Daniel. Its objective is to rise “a field hospital of 5,000 m2”totally “autonomous“, to accommodate between 50 and 100 people per day. This hospital “will be able to handle both emergencies”but also “surgical operations”. A radiology department and a maternity ward will also be operational for a period of 15 days to a month.
franceinfo: What is the situation in Derna?
Marie Peucelle : The situation in Derna, the city most affected by storm Daniel, is still quite dramatic. The city was literally split into three after the two dams broke. The water poured with extraordinary violence into the city. It devastated everything in its path and destroyed numerous buildings, roads and bridges. It caused thousands of deaths. It is a city which is in shock, but which is organizing itself and starting to welcome international aid and in particular the French, since we have set up a medical-surgical detachment which will be able to set up a field hospital .
>> Floods in Libya: “The topography of the city of Derna favored this type of disaster,” explains a former diplomat
The main difficulties are logistical?
There is an obvious logistical issue. We have to bring back 40 tonnes of freight by road. The reconnaissance allowed us to evaluate the safest route to bring the freight to an identified area where we could deem it appropriate to set up a field hospital. A field hospital with 5,000 m2 of footprint, tents and then a whole living and logistics area for the caregivers who will make up this hospital.
How many people can be accommodated in this field hospital?
It will be made up of 63 firefighters and civil security rescuers, therefore a mixed detachment of firefighters and soldiers. The hospital structure will be able to accommodate between 50 and 100 patients per day.
The particularity of this field hospital is that it will be able to manage both emergencies, but also go as far as surgical operations or the establishment of a maternity ward.
Lieutenant-Colonel Marie Peucellefranceinfo
We actually have a hospital really condensed into tents with radiology, laboratory, all the tools we usually have, but which we will position under large tents and which we will set up very quickly.
How do you supply this hospital with energy?
The field hospital is completely autonomous. It is sufficient in itself. The objective of a field hospital is to be able to be deployed very quickly, to arrive as close as possible to the disaster and not to add a logistical problem to a country which is already devastated. This is really the main idea of this hospital. When we deploy and once the structures are set up, we will be able to treat our water, making it drinkable and usable within the hospital. We come with food, we come with water, we come with huge generators. We are initially there for two weeks. We proposed to the government if they need us for up to a month of deployment.