Up to 10,000 people have disappeared and twice as many have been displaced.
Up to 3,000 people have died and 10,000 are missing in massive floods that have inundated parts of eastern Libya.
Libyan Red Crescent spokesman Taqfiq Shukri confirmed on Tuesday that 2,084 people had died, while IFRC chief Tamer Ramadan said: “The number of missing has so far reached 10,000”.
An estimated 20,000 people have been displaced. Libya’s eastern administration, based in Benghazi, estimates the death toll at 3,000.
In the capital Tripoli, the Prime Minister of the National Unity Government, Abdul Hamid Dibeba, announced on Tuesday that an aid plane carrying 14 tons of supplies and medical personnel was being flown to Benghazi, although there were still difficulties entering the hard-hit city of Derna.
Relief forces are moving from west to east in divided Libya as the internationally recognized government of Tripoli declares the east a disaster zone and sends aid.
Benghazi authorities said more than 1,000 bodies had been recovered from the Mediterranean city of Derna.
On Monday, Storm Daniel tore through eastern Libya, bursting two dams on the Wadi Derna River and sending millions of cubic meters of water downstream, flooding the river plain and hitting Derna.
Apartments partially collapsed and a beach bridge was washed away as tons of water rushed out to sea.
Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina, reporting from Tripoli on Tuesday, said it was still unknown how many people were missing in the natural disaster and estimates varied between 5,000 and 10,000.
“Officials have struggled to reach Terna as roads leading to the town have been destroyed or cut off by floods.” However, aid has started reaching people outside Terna, he added.
Communication with the city has been cut off by the storm, making it difficult to gather information on casualties and damage.
A quarter of the city ‘disappeared’
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Hani Shenib of the National Council on Libya-US Relations said: “About 4 square km. [1.5sq miles] The central part of the city has been completely eroded.”
Many patients and staff had to evacuate flooded hospitals, and many were still trapped in flooded areas, Traina said.
Tamer Ramadan, a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Cross Societies delegation to Libya, expressed his concerns that dealing with the floods was “beyond the capabilities of the government, the national community, the people”. International actors are needed.
Benghazi Civil Aviation Minister Hichem Chkiouat, who visited Terna, told Reuters on Tuesday: “Bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in valleys, under buildings.”
The minister added: “I am not exaggerating when I say that 25 percent of the city has disappeared.”
