Libya flooding: Most deaths could have been avoided, says UN - BBC News 

Can be avoided, prevented, or at least lessened casualty IF governments are not busy on their personal agendas. This is not only in Libya. Condolences to the families.

It seems to be a recurring theme with recent natural disasters: no proper warning system, or the infrastructure wasn't maintained/inspected. Earthquake in Turkey, wildfires in Hawaii, and now the floods in Libya. Corruption and incompetence were the main problems, although climate change makes everything worse.

This is the most horrible situation! God bless the people of Libya…and I’m praying for everyone who’s suffered such loss! My heart aches for you! Words are useless…..the magnitude of this catastrophe is beyond anything we here on this earth can articulate! All of my love and prayers….

Condolences and prayers for the families and the entire Libyan's nation. 😢😢😢

The tragic floods happened in Eastern Libya which is controlled by warlord Khalifah Haftar, who's backed by Egypt, UAE, France and Russia. The UN-recognized Libyan government is based in Western Libya. So you can see the big problem here. Haftar and his so-called "Libyan National Army" doesn't care about the Libyan people, and only cares about pandering to his backers while holding on to power. His cronies just want to extract as much money as possible. They tried to take over the entire country too but were fortunately defeated from taking over the capital Tripoli a few years ago.

Avoidance was definitely possible, it just the lack of action that the greedy politicians up top of not using the money where it is supposed to.

Even seeing the pictures its so hard to take this all in. The levels of devastation are just overwhelming.

Sad. It was like what happened in the Philippines many years ago when the first biggest typhoon in the world landed in many areas of the country particularly in the Visayan region. Thousands of people also lost their lives because of unexpected flood due to storm surge. Our deepest condolence to the people of Libya.

Prayers for Libya and Morocco 💔😭

This is overwhelming. May God have mercy on Libya and the affected people.

Strange that BOTH DAMS FAILED at the same time🤔

No thoughts and no prayers are going to help these people, blame the fact that there are TWO separate governments. They did a total disservice to the people

Are the people of Libya doing better without Gadafi or did they have better standards of living while he was in power? Keep in mind that Gadafi was the only one who had been working on improving their infrastructure and the only one who actually had the country unified. By no means was he the leader they deserved but he was the leader that kept it all together, the west helped to instigate his fall and now they want to point fingers. SMH.

Missing Gaddafi yet? When, you know, Libya had no slave markets or civil wars, people had good living conditions, and dams were maintained so they didn't collapse in a bit of weather?

Condolences and prayers to the people or Derna and Libya. May god have mercy on the lost souls. Amen 🙏

If only countries invested in infrastructure, safety and health instead of war the whole world would be completely transformed for the better

negligence on the part of dam officials..

Not just about warnings… if you are going to build dams you’d better maintain them and operate them safely!

Only if people realise Noah's ark was made for this. Today Jesus is the ark, the saviour. May the Lord give comfort

It is sad. May their souls be blessed. Today, we all stand with our brothers and sisters in Libya.

The same thing happened in New Zealand, Cyclone Gabrielle came and there were no warnings given resulting in the loss of lives and livelihoods. Governments and Councils fail to take any responsibility in these situations. It's not like natural disasters are a new thing to us all... disappointing and very sad to see this happening around the World.

The government should have not wasted money on themselves and spent it on keeping up with the maintenance of them to avoid the damage and all the people who have been lost because of this. Gives them the reason to start again at last it was a dump before it but start again and build a better place

This is sad in Libya. According to the report warnings was issued about the dam and this was ignored, look at the price, people have paid. There are two main elements if any government involved in it will cause disaster and mass deads is 1. Ignorance 2. Corruption.

This is very sad, prayers to Libya.

انا لله وانا اليه راجعون البقاء لله اللهم أجرني في مصيبتي واخلف لي خير منها اللهم اغفر لأهلنا في درنة اللهم اغفر لهم و ارحمهم امين .

Could have been avoid if we hadn't overthrown Ghadaffi.

I AM having trouble grasping this tragedy. I am so sorry for the greatly suffering people. Heart breaking.

May God help Libya ❤❤❤

Thoughts and prayers to the people of Libya. Plant more trees to save more lives.

Prayer to people of Morocco and Libya and God bless them.

Some countries has been and still are more dangerous to Libya than these floods....Libya need a leader like Ghadafi..long live peace 🕊️🕊️

There may be a lot of victims traps within debris in the sea.

UN has no right to say anything

My prayers go to all in Libya

‏أنا لله وأنا إليه راجعون رحمة الله على كل من توفى في ليبيا

They need more than praying. They need law and order and a government that cares about their humanity and all the necessary orders and infrastructure in creating a safe community

Very sad .. very .. sending prayers to the Libyan people..

We gonna keep on praying for the people of Libya 🇱🇾 🙏🏽

Never seen such a thing before... horrific situation

Solidarity to the Libyan people

I would like to know if this dam had been damaged/weakened when British Jets (NATO) bombed Libya in 2011.

I saw mass unmarked graves! How are ppl supposed to get closure on what happened to their loved ones?

Pray for Libya and Morocco 🤲🤲🤲🙏🙏🙏

🙏🙏❤️ I extend my condolences to the Libyan people ! ❤😂 May their soul rest in the peach !

To many people living next to rivers, and building on flood plains

Our Prayers for the people of Libya

It’s a terrible time to be a fisherman around Libya. Every time you take in a net you hope for no deceased person.

It worries me how the fallout from persistent dehumanisation on tv/in newspapers of “Arabs” “Muslims” “asylum seekers”, is evident in a few of these comments. I understand it’s hard to decide whether to care or not for some, when ‘not long ago’ we were told it was ok to bomb Libya (twice in my lifetime) I hope the people making these nasty comments don’t ever experience this kind of hatred, but it is a shame to have to share the world with them. Sorry Libya from the UK.

So sorry for the people of Libya, the government here should gather up all the Illegals here and send them to Libya to help rebuild their country

Debieron dejar abiertas ambas represas, y dar avisos.

With a proper warning system

If it could be avoided, those who didn’t do their duty to avoid the disaster should be held accountable. Prayers from Nepal 🇳🇵.

Seems we all need to become weather experts in these times!!!20000 people.😮I cannot even count that far.😢

Since earthquake isn't familiar with this region in Africa, probably the didn't consider it!

Money needed to be invested in infrastructure to repair dams and install levies

Libya need peace now🕊️

that's always the problem with people, after disaster the stories of " ...would have been avoided must crop up" Libyan people this is the high time to be united as one and give sendoff to the departed and of all , May the Allah give you strength to move on so that one day you will look back some day and say " we overcame suffering!😭😭

@bbcnews why there is no coverage anywhere about greek floods where villages have also been wiped out??

Who blew up the dams

Condolence to the families😢😢

Natural disasters always break my heart

My thoughts and prayers with who are effected in this disaster 😢

I don't wanna believe 20,000 people died

We Nato killed gadaff and today Libya people are suffering .

We Indians believe in one family one earth so we regret for our lybian brothers and sisters.

5:25 Despite years of experience as a journalist, and knowing all too well newsreaders gotta keep a straight face, I can see her eyes are moist as she tries to hold back her tears.

who removed Gadahfi? imported freedom . over 10 years civil war, no maintanance for water dam.

The scale of destruction is showing the flow of water should have been much more than 100 million m^3.

My condolences. Must have been a devastating experience. With the drastic climate change, living by the sea doesn’t seem a brilliant idea anymore.

Wow 😪😪😪😪😪 my condolences to 🇱🇾.I feel the pain 😢I’m sorry ohh Lord have mercy on us

Y’all keep praying, it’s never worked before maybe it will now.

Half of the pictures are not in derna .

To think that Libya was once a great and prosperous country with a stable government. I hope Obama and Hilary Clinton are happy about all this devastation😢 in Libya.

Why not open the gates of the dam while it was raining for 24hrs?

No existen avisos, no existe coordinación entre represas no hay preparación para la tormenta.

True- don’t build in river valleys and put proper foundations in

These sad people were left to die by thier govenment like in the countryside fsrners in China! So sad.

To compare this to an atomic bomb based on some estimates of forces makes no sense whatsoever and is only meaningless rhetoric.

Question is, had the allied nations not absolutely decimated Libya would we be able to fully assist

My condolences to Libyans but "What did I do to you"?

Libya still suffering from the consquences of the US. This is sad.

A tsunami in the desert, unbelievable.

Soooo sad😢😢

I know someone who wouldn't have let this happen...

Shocking news! have hearts Libya

Dams that had cracks in them before the storm hit.

That is the wrath of nature , you can’t predict its strength

Please inform your embassy as soon as possible or any other institute for helping me here in Pakistani punjab

This happened in LA many moons ago. Muhalland dam I think. 500,000 died.

Condolences all the way from Sri Lanka.

The local authorities are to blame for the death toll of this tragedy....there should have been evacuations & warning by the authorities....

You cannot predict last minute natural disasters. What's wrong with society always trying to find someone or a group to put the blame on?

Most of the deaths could have been avoided if the West hadn’t deposed Gaddafi hadn’t been deposed. Also, Europe wouldn’t have hundreds of thousands of economic migrants flooding across the Mediterranean Sea.

God Bless you all!! Praying for all!!! Sending Angles❤

Do they know why the dams burst? Were they in need of maintenance and ignored?

Se me parece un poco a la tragedia de nueva orleans que por cierto se veia venir.

Most people may not know, but there is a recognised 'deaths per MWh of power generated' for different types of power generation. Fuels such as coal are more understandable because of the inherent danger of digging for coal and there tends to be a relatively constant dribble of deaths every so often from collapses and explosions underground. On the face of it, hydroelectric power generation seems safe, but when dams collapse they can kill huge numbers of people in a single event, and this is an example.

Mr Gomati is a remarkable reporter

❤🙏❤🙏 Dear Jesus. Spare those Families unnecessary grief and hardships at this difficult time of crisis and death and homelessness and tragedy. Give them comfort and strength to endure the coming days and weeks as they rebuild their lives slowly and heal from injuries and trauma and endured the hardships of this monumental crisis. Prayers for all EFFECTED including crisis workers and healthcare professionals. May angels surround those in need and they feel your loving presence in time of need. Amen. ❤1🙏❤🙏

So sad. All that flat land, no where to go. New Orleans, french quarter was under water in America. The dams gave way.