Thousands feared dead in Libya after dam collapses - eviltoast
  • RelativeArea0@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Thank you for including the reason at post title, I’ve seen this news somewhere and refuses to click on links, at first I was like “its bone dry there how tf a sudden flood came out from somewhere” and then i see your post.

    • Gsus4@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      After clicking some links, I confirmed that there was also a storm called Daniel and that the two dams didn’t just burst by themselves, they burst because of the flood from that storm

      PS: apparently it’s not just the storm, there were previous warnings.

      A 2022 report in an academic journal had warned that if a flood equivalent to one in 1959 was repeated, it would be “likely to cause one of the two dams to collapse, making the residents of the valley and the city of Derna vulnerable due to a high risk of flooding”.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/libya-floods-death-toll-dams-burst

    • Zippy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      China had a dam collapse in 1975 that resulted in an additional 67 other dams to fail. The Chinese government recently acknowledged the death toll at half a million people but knowing the government their and the poor statistics of the people living alone that watershed area, I suspect the number is well north of a million people.

      Honestly I would far rather live next to a nuclear plant then downstream of a damn. In every nuclear accident, you could safely walk, not run, but walk away from danger. Chernobyl included. When a damn fails, there can be little warning and the destruction is complete.