Libyan community in Sacramento prepares to help Libya after catastrophic flooding
SACRAMENTO -- Floodwaters devastated the North African country of Libya, leaving thousands of people dead and missing. Now the Sacramento Libyan community is responding and trying to raise funds to help their loved ones in the disaster zone.
The catastrophic flooding was caused by the Mediterranean's Storm Daniel, which dumped 6 to 9 inches of rain across most of eastern Libya. Libya's National Meteorological Centre reports over 16 inches of rain fell over Al-Bayda.
Storm Daniel began its destructive path in Greece as the storm produced record rainfall across portions of Greece and Turkey the week prior. The village of Zagora, Greece recorded 29 inches of rain in one day, which is equivalent to 18 months of rainfall in that region.
Across Libya, the rain was too much to withstand -- especially around the city of Derna. Two dams collapsed, sending the city underwater.
Kamal Sherkasi, a board member with the Libyan-American Organization in Sacramento, said the infrastructure in Libya is very old.
"Derna gets rainfall and quite a bit of it and hence two dams were built. They worked fine for about 60 years, but this year it came so fast and all of a sudden. The dams couldn't handle it, so they both broke -- and of course downstream was Derna and it just got inundated," Sherkasi said.
Sherkasi said his family was one of the lucky ones as they are located in Benghazi, but says many are hearing the city of Derna is destroyed.
"You had all of this water rushing into Derna all of a sudden with extreme force and it brought down buildings with people inside and washed away cars," Sherkasi said.
Now, the Sacramento Libyan community is trying to help by setting up fundraisers to send back supplies and money to those impacted.
"The country is in need of medical supplies, namely antibiotics, painkillers, anything to help with the lacerations, broken bones and that's what we are trying to gather and send over there," Sherkasi said.
Hoping what they do in Northern California will make an impact overseas.
"Hopefully we can raise some funds and be able to help out the people in the eastern part that have been hurt by this catastrophe. They can't buy any supplies, there's nothing left," Sherkasi said.
Sherkasi said as they work on setting up fundraisers people can visit Libya's UNICEF page and the National Council U.S. Libya Relations website.