Libyan Flood – its message
“If you haven’t been convinced so far, then I will let the future convince you because the future is going to convince you.”
Hank Green
Like Hank Green said, each year it is going to get harder and harder to deny climate change.
The latest disaster emanates from Libya and it’s really stunning.
Actually, all of these disasters this year have been stunning.
Based upon some of my readings, Storm Daniel began pelting Greece September 5th and 6th, dropping 2 feet of rain, which is roughly the sum total of 18 months of rain in two days.
Then the medicane (a Mediterranean hurricane) went south and hit Libya, first Benghazi on September 10th and then Derna September 11. It finally died out on September 12th.
When Storm Daniel arrived in Derna, people danced in the streets (according to one article which I unfortunately failed to save) because they rarely saw rain. It was only when day turned to night that disaster struck: two dams broke, sending a wall of water 20 to 22 feet high, crashing into buildings and sweeping them through the valley out to sea.
One heartbreaking story: “‘Stepping on dead people’: Voices from flood-ravaged Libyan city”
“Soon the sounds were of shouting, and then of final prayers from people sheltering on rooftops in the dark of night, said Yousef Saleh Yousef Al-Shaari, 30, a civil servant who lives near one of the two ruined dams.”
NBC News, “‘Stepping on dead people’: Voices from flood-ravaged Libyan city”, Patrick Smith and Lawahez Jabari and Mo Abbas, 9/14/2023
“”You could see people on buildings with their phones lit up, shouting for help, but no one could do anything. And then suddenly one of the buildings would collapse and be washed away to the sea,” Al-Shaari said.”
NBC News, “‘Stepping on dead people’: Voices from flood-ravaged Libyan city”, Patrick Smith and Lawahez Jabari and Mo Abbas, 9/14/2023
As of 9/15/2023, it is estimated that 11,000+ are dead with possibly 10,000 missing. The authorities are projecting up to 20,000 dead in a city of 100,000. So, about 20% of the population could be dead. The authorities have said that roughly 25% or one quarter of the city buildings/infrastructures are gone.
The scale of the disaster is truly staggering.
However, and there is a BIG however, the disaster cannot be 100% attributed to climate change. It is said that most of the deaths could have been prevented. Overlaying the climate disaster is the negligence, corruption, incompetence. Libya had been undergoing a civil war for the last decade, so the dams were not maintained. One of them was said to have cracks.
As a matter of fact, it is said that last year some officials/experts warned about the cracks in the dam and the danger it posed. But nothing was done.
On top of that, no one was warned about the danger the storm could pose on top of the cracked dam; thus, no one was asked to evacuate.
Heartbreaking story two: “A Libyan family recounts how they survived the deadly floods”
“‘We’re afraid of the rain now,’ said Nizar, Alaam’s brother, standing in what remained of their kitchen.”
Washington Post, “A Libyan family recounts how they survived the deadly floods”, Louisa Loveluck, 9/15/2023
“They all made it to the upper floor, the water up to their necks. Alaam said he and the other men held the children above their heads. Neighbors shouted from the rooftops as a family of six was washed away. The groom was sure then that he would die.”
Washington Post, “A Libyan family recounts how they survived the deadly floods”, Louisa Loveluck, 9/15/2023
My only hope is that those who died were asleep and never knew what happened.
Implications for U.S.
What about us in the U.S.? The combination of climate change and corruption and civil war is disastrous.
We don’t have a civil war of violence right now, but we might have a quiet one where the battles are in legislative halls and judiciary courts. So instead of attention focused on the needs of the people and on buttressing our infrastructure, the attention is on gerrymandering, court battles, and performative twittering.
Here’s a few of the “battles” that have been reported in recent days or have been reported in the past:
- Wisconsin Republican Senate set to impeach a newly elected Democrat judge. She hasn’t started her job and yet, she is already being impeached.
- Texas Republican impeachment of the state attorney general Ken Paxton who is also Republican for abusing his office’s power to help one of his real estate developer friend/patron scuttle an FBI investigation of his business dealings. There is a little whiff of corruption here.
- Texas two years ago (2021) went through a deep freeze where their energy grid went down – a state that’s deemed the energy capital of the world. There is suggestion of corruption because the energy players in the state already went through a similar disaster in 2011and apparently failed to heed the instructions from the investigations. It is presently not certain that anything has been done, either in the energy field or in the legislative body, sinece 2021.
- News have reported that Republican governor Ron DeSantis has unilaterally fired Democratic prosecutors due to “not doing their job”. Based upon the stories coming out of Florida, it appears to be a quiet authoritarian civil war going on there.
- House Republicans in Washington, D.C. want to shut down the government so they can push for funding cuts. Funding that might be necessary to maintain and strengthen our infrastructure against severe weather.
- After Superstorm Sandy struck the northeast, Republican Ted Cruz and other Republicans – mainly Texas – did not want to fund the relief package for the northeast because supposedly two thirds of the package included pork unrelated to Superstorm Sandy. (This one is an old one but is indicative of false cost cutting.)
None of these points are actual evidence of a civil war or corruption; they are just troubling suggestions when taken as a whole. The constant exhortation to cut costs could lead to crumbling infrastructure as they fail to upgrade and renew our roads, bridges, dams and buildings.
The wealthy are going to have to pay for this.
