The city of Derna, about 250 km east of Benghazi, is surrounded by the hills of the fertile Jabal Akdar region. Experts in water engineering told the BBC that a dam about 12 km from Derna probably broke first, so the water flowed down the valley.
The torrents also overcame the second dam, closer to the city.
Authorities in eastern Libya have returned the bodies of 145 Egyptians who died in floods after Storm Daniel.
They were picked up by the local coast guard after the sea washed them out of Derna.
In accordance with Islamic rites, they were taken to a mosque in the port city of Tobruk for purification before returning home.
Many Egyptians live and work across the border in Libya – mostly in the east. The Egyptian media Al Aram estimates that there are 140,000 of them, making them the second largest group of migrants in Libya.
Hicema Abu Cikuta, an official from eastern Libya, says there are more.
He told the Reuters news agency that “the sea is constantly throwing out tens of bodies”, adding that rebuilding the city would cost billions of dollars.
More than 5,300 bodies have been counted so far in the flood-hit city of Derna in Libya, the aforementioned official told the Reuters news agency.
Cikuta, who is the minister of civil aviation, says the death toll is expected to rise and could even double.
They also heard some disturbing descriptions of the situation in Libya from Jor Ali, a Libyan journalist whose family is in the country.
He is currently in Istanbul for work, and told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Everyone says it’s like doomsday. Children screaming, dead bodies in the streets.”
He explains that he spoke to a family that was the only flood survivor in their neighborhood.
“They described the situation when the flood passed, they say that the woman was hanging from the street light because she was swept away by the flood.
“She stayed there and died there. They witnessed it, they witnessed their nephew dead in the street, how the water threw him.”
People say the amount of water is indescribable, says Ali.
“Tens of thousands are either dead or underground. The water took the soil from under them and threw them into the sea.”
Search and rescue operations continue in Libya in hopes of finding survivors.
