Most of the thousands of deaths in the floods in eastern Libya “could have been avoided,” said Thursday the head of the World Meteorological Organization, which depends on the UN.
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With better coordination in this country ravaged by a serious political crisis, “they could have issued warnings and the emergency management services could have evacuated people, and we could have avoided most of the human losses”, declared Petteri Taalas during a press briefing in Geneva.
A flash flood the size of a tsunami hit eastern Libya on Sunday, killing at least 4,000 people and leaving thousands missing.
The rising waters destroyed two dams upstream of the town of Derna, entire blocks of houses were swept away by the waters. According to Mr. Taalas, the disorganization affecting Libya – including its meteorological services – largely contributed to the scale of the disaster.
AFP
He stressed that the years of internal conflict ravaging the country have “largely destroyed the weather observation network”, as have the computer systems.
“The floods occurred and no evacuations took place because the appropriate early warning systems were not in place,” he said.
If evacuations had taken place, the human toll would have been much lower, he added.
AFP
In fact, a curfew had been declared in several towns in the east of the country, including Derna, forcing residents to stay at home.
“Of course, we cannot completely avoid economic losses, but we could also have minimized these losses by implementing appropriate services,” he said.
Libya’s National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued early warnings of severe weather conditions 72 hours in advance and informed government authorities by email, urging them to take preventive measures.
AFP
A state of emergency was declared by authorities in eastern Libya on Friday and they set up a crisis unit.
But WMO said it was “unclear” whether “(the warnings) were effectively disseminated.”