Thousands of people are feared to be dead following a cataclysmic flood in the North African country of Libya. The flood occurred following the bursting of two dams in the coastal city of Derna.

Storms pummeled the area with rainfall before the flood which caused the dams to fail. At least 8,000 people are dead and thousands are missing after the torrent of water washed away entire neighborhoods. The death toll is expected to rise significantly to 20,000 in the coming days.

Emergency services in the city have been rendered inept as hospitals and morgues overflow. Many victims were swept into the sea from the flood and their bodies are now washing up on the shoreline.

The beach is littered with toys, furniture, and other possessions that were initially swept out to sea. Streets are filled with turned-over cars and extraordinary amounts of mud. Nothing remains of the dams but rubble and a washed-out road.

What made this flood disastrous, is that it occurred at night when many people were asleep, leading to entire families being wiped out. The flood has been described by survivors as more like a single-wave tsunami.

Resident, Mustafa Salem, told Reuters, “People were asleep and no one was ready. We lost 30 people so far, 30 members of the same family. We haven’t found anyone.”

In addition to the immense destruction inflicted by the flood, there is concern that diseases from contaminated water could prove to be the next danger to survivors. The disaster has already been declared the worst in Libya’s modern history.

The United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization have declared that the massive death toll could have been prevented. “If there would have been a normally operating meteorological service, they could have issued warnings. The emergency management authorities would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people and we could have avoided most of the human casualties,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalashe stated.

Libya has been entangled in political turmoil as a result of civil war, which has resulted in two rival governments vying for control of the country. The UN-backed Government of National Unity resides in Tripoli and its rival the Libyan National Army resides in Benghazi. This situation has prevented Libya from having the state infrastructure necessary to provide warnings regarding impending natural disasters.

Several countries are sending humanitarian aid to Libya such as Spain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Italy, and Algeria. The US Embassy in Tripoli has announced its intention of providing humanitarian needs.