The Wadi Derna is a river valley in Libya which leads down from the Jebel Akhdar mountains to the port city of Derna. Like many other wadis in North Africa, it is an intermittent riverbed that for much of its length contains water only when heavy rain occurs.[1] It is 75 kilometres (47 mi) long[2] and drains a drainage basin of 575 km2.
| Wadi Derna | |
|---|---|
 Wadi Derna, January 2010 | |
 Wadi Derna drainage basin (Interactive map) | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mouth | Mediterranean Sea |
• coordinates | 32°46′02″N 22°39′05″E / 32.7672°N 22.6514°E |
| Basin features | |
| Cities | Derna |
| Waterfalls | Derna waterfalls |
Derna waterfalls
editThe Derna waterfalls are located in Wadi Derna[1] about 7 km (4.3 mi) to the south of Derna.[3]
2023 Derna catastrophe
editIn September 2023, against the backdrop of the civil war, torrential rainfall from Storm Daniel led to the collapse of two dams—the Derna dam and the downstream Abu Mansour dam—along the river, causing catastrophic flooding in the city of Derna and killing least 5,923 people.[4][5][6][7] It was one of the deadliest dam failures in history.
References
edit- ^ a b Mellen, Ruby; Karklis, Laris; Granados, Samuel; Ledur, Júlia; Stillman, Dan (12 September 2023). "Mapping why Libya's floods were so deadly". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
- ^ C.B.M. McBurney; R.W. Hey (1955). "VII, Tufaceous deposits". Prehistory and Pleistocene Geology in Cyrenaican Libya. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521056243. Retrieved 2023-09-14 – via books.google.co.uk.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Alex Olorenshaw; Faisal Ali; Harvey Symons; Glenn Swann (2023-09-12). "Destruction in Derna: how floods ravaged Libyan port city". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 2023-09-14.
- ^ "Death toll hits 11,300 in Libyan city destroyed by floods". NBC News. 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
- ^ "Libya Assistance Overview, April 2024". ReliefWeb. USAID. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
- ^ "Libya: Flood update Flash Update No.7 (23 September 2023) (as of 4pm local time) [EN/AR]". reliefweb.int. 24 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
- ^ Akbarzai, Salih; Roth, Richard (17 September 2023). "UN revises previous high Libya death toll". CNN. Archived from the original on 18 September 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
