Tugboat captain Ali al-Mismari, 60, recalled the night of September 10 when torrential rains caused by Storm Daniel battered the eastern Libyan city, bursting two dams and wiping out entire neighbourhoods.
At first, Mismari told AFP, he wanted to take his boat, the "Irasa", out of the harbour to avoid putting the crew at risk and to avoid damage to the vessel.
But in the chaos of the storm, with water levels rapidly rising, he was unable to see the seawalls surrounding the port and navigate a safe exit.
"There was nothing (to do) but pray," he said.
When day broke, the scale of the devastation became clear.
Mismari said he saw "massive trucks, car tyres, people, houses, entire palm trees... heaters, washing machines, refrigerators" had all been washed into the harbour by the flash flood.
The official death toll from the disaster stands at more than 3,300 -- but the eventual count is expected to be far higher, with international aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing.
- 'Zero visibility' -
Since the tsunami-sized flood lashed Derna, port workers, fishermen and passers-by have largely abandoned the seafront, and only a handful of vessels, the Irasa included, were still there.
The tugboat was enlisted along with local and foreign teams to clear the bottom of the harbour.
The walkways surrounding the port are now paved with items retrieved by divers.
Captain Mohamed Chalibta, head of the port authority's crisis management committee, said the search was concentrated on "objects that had sunk in the port", including cars with people still thought to be inside.
An Emirati team, equipped with boats and jet skis, scoured one part of the harbour.
But the water was dark brown, filled with mud brought by the flood, and there was virtually "zero visibility", according to one of the divers.
The Emirati search mission chief, Colonel Ali Abdullah al-Naqbi, was giving directions to his team, stressing the need to take full precautions.
Two by two, scuba divers secured with safety ropes descended from their yellow boat.
One emerged from the muddy water after a short while, and said: "We tied (a rope) to a car. We can't see anything."
Another diver meanwhile found a second car.
Back on their boat, other team members helped the divers remove foliage that had become stuck on them and sprinkled fresh water on their faces.
The Emirati team, in coordination with Libyan authorities, called in a crane that pulled one of the mangled wrecks out the water.
- Survivor in fridge -
As it was being removed, mud, water and what appeared to be human remains spilled out of the vehicle.
Lowered onto the dock, Libyan men in white coats, gloves and face masks took over to check the vehicle for bodies, but on this occasion they found none.
Officials expect the process of clearing the port to take a long time.
Rescuers are also searching the sea beyond the harbour, with maritime experts saying many bodies may have been carried eastward by the current.
Hafez Obeid, head of the Libyan forensic team, said the salinity of the water helps to preserve bodies, making the identification process easier than for corpses found on land.
Aboard the Irasa, captain Mismari said "private fishing boats were the first to rush to the rescue" on the night of the disaster.
Next to him, technician Taoufik Akrouch, 61, recalled that "the water level rose above the dock by about one and a half metres (five feet)".
The Irasa began tilting violently and the crew started its engines before cutting mooring lines.
At dawn, they heard a cry for help.
They found a survivor -- a naked woman floating inside a refrigerator, according to two crew members.
They said she asked them: "Where is my sister?"
Another survivor rescued by Mismari's team, an Egyptian, could not say how he got to the harbour.
"He had been sleeping, and then found himself there," Mismari said. "Maybe he had been unconscious."
Eastern authorities want Libya aid conference in flood-hit Derna
Benghazi, Libya (AFP) Sept 23, 2023 -
Libya's flood-devastated port city of Derna will host an international conference next month to aid reconstruction efforts, authorities in the east of the divided country said Friday.
There was no immediate reaction from the internationally recognised government in Tripoli nor any details on how the rival administration would accommodate delegates in a city where entire neighbourhoods have been swept away.
A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two ageing dams upstream from Derna after a hurricane-strength storm lashed the area on September 10, sweeping thousands of people into the sea.
"The government invites the international community to participate in the conference planned for October 10 in Derna to present modern, rapid projects for the reconstruction of the city," the eastern administration said in a statement.
It said the conference was being held in "response to the demands of residents of the stricken city of Derna and other towns that suffered damage" during the flooding.
Despite a wave of nationwide solidarity since the flood, there was no immediate show of support for the proposed conference from the Tripoli-based government of interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.
And even the office of strongman Khalifa Haftar, the main military backer of the eastern administration, questioned how many donor governments would attend.
"Are donor countries going to take part or are they going to wait for a conference organised by Dbeibah?" Haftar's spokesman Ahmad al-Mismari asked. "This political polarisation has harmed Libyans."
Libya has been wracked by division and on-off conflict ever since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
A bloody 2019 assault on Tripoli by Haftar's forces ended in defeat by Dbeibah loyalists and an August 2020 ceasefire that largely holds.
- Mass burials -
There is still no widely accepted death toll for the floods which devastated Derna and nearby coastal towns.
The latest official death toll released on Friday evening stood at 3,753 but the eventual count is expected to be far higher, with international aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing.
Bodies are still being found in large numbers, under the debris or on beaches where they have washed up after being swept out to the sea by the flood.
On Friday, dozens of bodies were delivered in a lorry and two pick-ups to the village cemetery in Martouba, 27 kilometres (17 miles) southeast of Derna, for burial, footage posted on social media showed.
Libyan media said 200 people were buried in the cemetery in a single day.
The International Organization for Migration said Thursday that more than 43,000 people have been displaced from the disaster zone.
It said a "lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna".
In Susa, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the west, residents complained that they too had no access to drinking water after the flood badly damaged a desalination plant.
Instead, volunteers have to "bring water from nearby cities in big trucks," 34-year-old Ahmed Saleh told AFP.
Mobile and internet services were restored in Derna on Thursday following a two-day disruption that came after demonstrations by angry residents on Monday.
The protests saw hundreds of demonstrators gather outside the city's grand mosque, chanting slogans against the eastern-based parliament and its leader and calling for accountability over the high death toll.
Amnesty International reported "arrests of critics and protesters" in Derna and criticised "efforts to choreograph and control media access".
The dams that burst had developed cracks as far back as the 1990s, Libya's top prosecutor has said, as residents accused authorities of negligence.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said in a report issued on Tuesday that a deluge of the magnitude seen in eastern Libya was an event that occurred once every 300-600 years.
They said such downpours were both more likely and heavier because of human-caused global warming, resulting in up to 50 percent more rain.
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