By Sophie Foster
Opinion Editor
Thousands of lives were lost in the devastating Storm Daniel, which struck the Mediterranean region in the first week of September. Libya, in particular, saw immense destruction and the highest death toll as a result of an offshoot flood instigated by the cyclone.
According to Relief Web, Storm Daniel’s floodwaters have thus far caused the displacement of an estimated 42,000 people with a still-rising death toll.
“The protection risks are immense for people affected by the floods,” according to Relief Web. “In particular, there are protection concerns for unaccompanied and separated children, mental health and psycho-social needs, issues of access to replacement of housing, land and property as well as essential civil documentation, a need for equal access to assistance for all affected populations and the risk of gender-based violence. Longer-term assistance will be essential.”
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, it is likely that this will prove to be the deadliest natural disaster in the known history of the Mediterranean, in part because it struck Libya after several months of drought. This meant the soil was too compacted to absorb the water, causing floodwaters to overwhelm dams in Derna, a coastal city.
“Estimates have shifted substantially in recent days, but at least 6,000 people have died and thousands more are missing, swept out to sea or buried under rubble and sediment,” according to the Bulletin. “The before and after imagery shows a city buried and broken.”
This is all particularly alarming in the broader context of the ongoing and rapidly worsening global climate crisis. Libya, as a significant point of migration across the Mediterranean, hosts hundreds daily journeying across the nation, “primarily due to environmental strife driven by the same climatological shifts that contributed to the intensity of this event,” according to the Bulletin.
Libya is not alone in feeling the effects of yet another natural disaster, though. Daniel also swept through Greece, submerging homes, killing hundreds of thousands of animals and poultry, and destroying around a fifth of the country’s cotton crop, according to the BBC. Early estimates indicate the cost of this destruction will total in the range of $5 billion.
Because the Greek region of Thessaly was severely impacted, there are prominent concerns regarding the country’s food production. Thessaly is among Greece’s main agricultural regions, according to the BBC.
These impacts cannot be allowed to drift from international focus, even among the ever-lengthening list of climate disasters transpiring worldwide. Though technological advancements such as early warning systems have meant extreme weather-related death rates have broadly decreased, we cannot rely on these measures to successfully outpace the uncertain, racing speed of climate change.
The reality, according to the Bulletin, is that not only are we constantly rolling the dice for positive or negative outcomes amid climate disaster, but we are rolling those dice far more frequently and in far more places than ever before as a result of the catastrophically shifting climate.
It is not just the most theoretically vulnerable nations that are at risk; it is everyone.
Even in Maryland, several hundred miles away from the storm and flood that afflicted the Mediterranean, we are expected to be increasingly vigilant.
On Sept. 22, Washington College Director of Public Safety Ryan Colman sent an email to the College community warning of a coming storm that was, at the time, projected to become a cyclone. Colman shared recommendations for emergency preparedness in the case that the storm became severe.
While in this the case crisis was averted, it should serve as a valuable reminder, mere weeks after the devastation in the Mediterranean, that the climate crisis is well underway and is disastrously unpredictable.
Though real solutions must come at the hands of governments worldwide through restrictions on the corporations doing severe harm, it is now also very necessary that we look to our most vulnerable areas and advocate for improved prevention measures, including climate-resistant infrastructure, which, according to the Bulletin “is one pathway that can better balance needs of the present while also better ‘future proofing’ vulnerable communities ahead of disaster.”
We cannot anticipate every instance of climate disaster well in advance, but we can invest in communities, exercise resilience, and commit to awareness.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photo Caption: Recent flooding devastated residents of Libya, and rescue efforts are still underway.