Aid workers struggle to reach city in Libya where catastrophic flooding killed thousands

Amna Nawaz:

Scenes of biblical devastation, the dead stacked in the streets, and aid for the living too slow in arriving, that is the situation tonight in North Africa. At least 5,100 are dead from immense flooding in Libya. The mayor one city says the toll could be as high as 20,000. And to the west in Morocco, nearly 3,000 are now officially counted among the dead from the Friday earthquake.

Ali Rogin reports.

Ali Rogin:

Scenes of horror along the streets of Derna, the coastal city hit hardest by the deluge. Today, it's a muddy graveyard. Rescuers say there are bodies everywhere, in the mangled upturned cars, beneath the ruins of apartment buildings, and floating offshore in the Mediterranean.

Yesterday, Libya's prime minister said the top priority was searching the open water where thousands are feared missing.

Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, Libyan Prime Minister (through interpreter):

We need specific assistance, especially in retrieving bodies from the sea. The Libyan navy, divers and frogmen are putting all their efforts into retrieving these bodies.

Ali Rogin:

The devastation began Sunday, with torrential rain brought on by Mediterranean Storm Daniel. But the worst hit Derna when two dams in the nearby valleys collapsed, sending a torrent of water directly through the city's center.

Satellite images show its sheer force as it washed away entire neighborhoods in its path. Some survivors described a wall of water reaching heights of 25 feet.

Aji Deisi, Flood Survivor (through interpreter):

I live on the top floor of this building. I opened the window and saw the storm attacking us. Cars were thrown around and families started running. The water reached the second floor.

Ali Rogin:

Some medical facilities are barely intact. Roads of corpses lay in the streets as overwhelmed hospitals began the agonizing process of identifying the dead.

Mohamad Al-Qabisi, Hospital Manager (through interpreter):

We counted them as they were lying in the hallways. Whoever is identified by family or friends is then buried. There are some who have not been identified, so we started photographing them and assigning numbers to them, then burying them as well.

Things are very bad. The hospital is dilapidated.

Bashir Ben Amer, International Rescue Committee:

They are mentally and physically completely devastated. I mean, they have lost their houses. They have lost their city, lost their workplaces. They have lost everything.

Ali Rogin:

Bashir Ben Amer is coordinating needs assessment on the ground in Tripoli, Libya's capital city. His organization, the International Rescue Committee, is one of the few that already had operations near the disaster zone in Derna.

Bashir Ben Amer:

We have heard stories from people who were trying to call each other in the same house while the floods were taking place to the second floor. And some people were over the cabinet and trying to call the other parts just to see if they're still breathing or able to respond or answer.

Ali Rogin:

The human toll is becoming more dire by the hour. As recovery efforts continue, the death count is expected to rise, and the U.N.'s migration agency said some 30,000 people in Derna alone are now without a home.

But the floods have caused extensive damage to Libya's coastal access roads and shutdown communication.

Bashir Ben Amer:

The telecommunication infrastructure, unfortunately, is lost right now. It is very challenging also for the rescue-and-search teams to communicate with each other.

Ali Rogin:

Meanwhile, in Africa's northwest, Morocco is still reeling from last week's catastrophic earthquake. But help is finally starting to arrive. Crews bulldozed through the rubble and brought much-needed aid to survivors, many of whom have lived in makeshift tents for days.

Some took refuge in whatever shelter they could, like this damaged school building, as they waited for help.

Ehouline Erkouch, Earthquake Survivor (through interpreter):

We have no food, nowhere good to sleep. It's not just about the collapsed houses. A house can be rebuilt later, but I lost my normal life. Everything from our life is gone.

Ali Rogin:

Many of the delays were physical. Remote areas were cut off due to landslides, but some of them were frustratingly political. Morocco's government continues to refuse any assistance from countries like the U.S. and France.

Back in Libya, aid has poured in from neighboring Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Turkey, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. Amer says he hopes the joint international effort will get people what they need when they need it.

Bashir Ben Amer:

Before this disaster, already there has been 800,000 people who are identified as need for humanitarian assistance. And now, following this tragedy, I'm afraid that this number will increase very quickly in a very short time.

Ali Rogin:

For "PBS NewsHour," I'm Ali Rogin.