Denise 0:08
If you have watched any of the previous episodes of Myth, Magic, Medicine may be a little jarring to see me pop up here. Dr. Nawras Abuhamidah chatted with me for the show on Sunday, September 10th and we recorded this short, very short, redo two weeks later, because less than a day after we talked, her home country of Libya was devastated by the dam failures. It just didn't feel right, to either of us, to post a chitty-chatty video so soon after the disaster. And she kindly agreed to a brief conversation with me about the efforts in Libya. There are links to organizations helping there and throughout the world, in the notes below. Thank you for watching, I rarely ask, but please share this podcast as widely as you can within your community. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for coming.
Nawras 1:04
So it's very unfortunate. Very unfortunate disaster happened on September 10. Sunday. As you all know, that storm Danielle struck the city of Derna at that time at the heavy rain, destroyed the two dams in there now, which is called Derna Wadi river and that caused a gush of estimate of around 8 million gallon of water, that flooded the city of Derna and, unfortunately, caused all the damage, swept out all the buildings, cars, people, belongings All away and cause all that damage and disaster. So I'm here to answer any question you have.
Denise 1:57
Well, I would the the initial death. Expected death count was then drastically revised by the World Health Organization. Do you have any up to date numbers? Because we're 2 weeks in now.
Nawras 2:14
The last time I looked they estimated anywhere between 2000 to 3000.
Denise 2:21
Yeah, so not as bad as they initially thought, but but a terrible number of people anyway.
Nawras 2:29
And there's a lot of thousands of people also still missing. So that's kind of up in the air whether, you know, they're going to be added to that number as well.
Denise 2:42
You probably don't know the exact number, but what's the estimated number of internal refugees, these are now thousands of people they have to house.
Nawras 2:54
That was 43,000 people were the last number that I heard they were displaced, either in the cities or somewhere with their relatives, but it is estimated to be 43,000.
Denise 3:07
Okay. Any country would be struggling with that kind of event. So what sorts of things is Libya asking for external help for
Nawras 3:17
Definitely, there's a huge help from what I heard is just the humanitarian aid, the psychosocial support, mental health, sanitation, medication, everything that you can think of after disaster will definitely help with, although they are doing their best with a lot of supplies coming from outside the country, but it's still a huge need for that aid for sure.
Denise 3:49
Yeah. And I did see some pictures of children in school, because the schools were buildings that were still standing. So are they using those kinds of facilities to house the people at the moment?
Nawras 4:03
Oh, that's true. Yeah, the school has been used to have the people stay in them. A lot of the neighboring cities also try to absorb those refugees, help them, of course, like City of Benghazi, the cities of Eastern Libya, try to absorb and help, especially that there's a lot of people from there, they have relatives and friends from nearby cities.
Denise 4:29
Yeah. So you said before we started talking about your mother's from eastern part of the country. is she from Derna or from a nearby city.
Nawras 4:40
She born in Derna, but her family and she are originally from Benghazi, which is close, 50 kilometers away from Derna. Her family luckily not affected but I mean, you just you just deeply by all these people hole, you know when, you know hear about it's really disaster that it's so unfortunate.
Denise 5:08
Are there particular health issue other than physical injury, obviously, but other particular health issues or sanitation going to pose major health problems more than they would perhaps in this country?
Nawras 5:22
Yes, of course, as in any situations with all these dead bodies and all these distruction that happen, there is a fear always often epidemic that can happen due to that unhealthy waters, sanitation, a lot of mental health issues as well as is going to be accompanying all the stress and accompanying all the loss of bodies and relatives, and you know, the kids lost their school and families are in distress of losing relatives and what's going to happen to them in the future among all that. There is definitely,
Denise 6:00
And the great fear because they don't necessarily know if their loved ones are safe. There's still 1000s of people missing.
Nawras 6:06
Correct, correct. And now, all these people who wish that their relatives body may be found to kind of get them buried, just kind of to get them some relief, where they are
Denise 6:20
A situation that you can define. So yes. There was some earlier reporting about other dams, or similar facilities that were also in danger for subsequent storms. Is there anything being done about that? Or was that just a fear of
Speaker 2 6:41
Those particular dams, their last min last time had a maintenance in 2008, 2009. And with that happening, that was kind of eye opener and whether we can other, you know, infrastructure work or maintenance on other dams in the country. And it's a work in progress for sure. Yeah, you're right. So that kind of brought to our attention, that there's something else need to be done to prevent another disaster. Right. Yeah.
Denise 7:13
Can you talk about really want to talk about loss? Well, I think I think it's pertinent. The, the area, I don't think most Americans and other people like me who watch the news and vague idea of where things are, Benghazi and Tripoli are to towns that we recognize the name of but Derna probably wasn't on most people's radar. What is the area? What what is the most important aspect of that area to the country is is food growing, is it a seaport? What is the importance of that part?
Nawras 7:50
Yeah, it's one of the beautiful cities actually, in Libya. It kind of has a very strategic geographical situations is like next to the Mediterranean on the Mediterranean Sea. It's also like, bordered by mountain and it has that river which is divided city into two parts, which is the media I mean, to grow. Of course, a lot of plants make it a very good transportation, tourist area, a few word a lot of Libyans go there to kind of have a vacations have a good seaside and of course, like on a Mediterranean Sea, so it's perfect weather in there. The only thing is that never before hasve they witnessed some disaster like this or ever thought of like that river is gonna complete that amount of rain before like, even talking to my mom, whose from the east part of the country, from what she heard that this never could be, that much of the rain water until that happened.
Denise 9:00
Yeah, well, yeah, like climate change is affecting everybody. I mean, it's just why were we covering our eyes so much? Make this very short episode? Yes, there are people you know, who were affected by this. Is there anything else you particularly like to say? And then I'm going to ask you please come back for season four. And we'll just do another conversation all about you because it just feels feels very odd to suddenly how's life in Omaha? Is your Libyan is the community here in the US if you have a support community of people?
Nawras 9:40
Yeah, there is a huge community all over the US - in Omaha not so much, it's not a big community, like seven families or so. But in US, great support. Great community. Yeah. There's a lot of physicians as well.
Denise 10:00
But then then you have that sort of little guilt. Should I be somewhere else? Not you, you've got a tiny baby to look after but have you heard? Have you heard anything about actual relief efforts that are going on?
Nawras 10:15
And again, one more time, sorry,
Denise 10:17
Have you heard of specifically from home or from your mother about relief efforts that are going on? Are there physicians going in? I assume there are but which organizations you know about that have gone there.
Nawras 10:30
So the first organization that went in there was the Red Crescent, the Libyan Red Crescent, there's also, I would say, like, voluntary doctors, who voluntarily went the extra mile and went and help, because there's one hospital there up and running at the time of all that. But a lot of doctors that went on their own, Red Crescent for sure is the first one. And then of course, that by the time that accumulates and build up a lot of people that came and helped volunteer people, physician as well. And then also, there is a field hospital that has been made up at the time of the disasters, which recruit physicians from over Libya.
Denise 11:20
And so is language an issue with working there?
Nawras 11:27
No not at all. We speak Arabic, English as well. Some people will also speak a little bit Italian as well.
Denise 11:37
Okay. I gotta go check my history books as to why that happened.
Nawras 11:43
No, language is not an issue. And actually, there is also like, neighbor countries and other countries also send their world trained rescue team, because there were like, a huge need for help and rescuing specialized rescuing team, or try to take bodies from the water, and all that. So Turkey sent a team out, Tunisia,, I would say, UAE, also Egypt, they're all kind of
Denise 12:17
Good. Okay, this is a very short episode. I just, I'm just so stuck, is it? It makes it real to you. And we are one family in the world. And when you know someone who's actually from that area, it makes it so much more real. Even though you may feel terrible watching the news. Once you turn it off, you can it otherwise none of us would get through the day would we but it does make so much difference when you know somebody from there. And your husband, does he have family from the area too?
Nawras 12:52
Not from the area, not from the area. He's from a city called Garyan but he of course, as we all kinda see that news. It's very sad because it's your country, although that you don't know anybody that is affected we truly all affected by that. Yeah. Yeah.
Denise 13:12
And you obviously are not going to be going back there with four children to look after, one a new baby. But do you know of any Americans who are likely to go or or American organizations yet that are involved? Oh,
Speaker 2 13:26
No, I don't know. Actually, if any American organizations, I know that UNICEF are sending supplies, and they have a lot of volunteer, United Nation, as I said, IOM and then the countries that I mentioned already, but I don't know if any American organizations actually or physicians that kind of volunteered here. So far
Denise 13:49
perhaps individuals who come from the area? I'm sure,
Nawras 13:53
I'm sure, yeah.
Denise 13:54
Yeah. Um, how long do they estimate it will take assuming no other disasters for them to rebuild the area?
Nawras 14:05
Excellent question. I was just hearing what the mayor was saying about the mayor of there was saying is this tall, they're doing that disaster aftermath. Or they think it's going to be a lot of money needed to have Derna back up and running. But the he didn't really give a number. As far as
Denise 14:26
They're still in the disaster. We're still trying to find absolute. Ojala we'll find some people who are still alive. I also saw that it struck me as this little island actually that the United Nations said please stop using mass graves because it is so difficult for families to mourn and the other aspects of dealing with death that one needs to do but it's also physically you just have to deal with that huge number of bodies is it's a difficult issue to deal with. All right, definitely got Oh,
Nawras 15:00
I agree with you. Yeah. So it's gonna take time I agree with you, it's gonna take time, like any other disaster, like, it's not me or any other disaster happening, it's gonna take its time needs a lot of hard work to kind of get it back up and running. But yeah, a lot of efforts, a lot of hard work, I guess on different aspects. They're trying to build back the electricity, they're trying to figure out that the communication telecommunications, trying to get like, you know, the food, that the healthy water like the sanitation water also as well. So that's kind of take a lot of time to think.
Denise 15:41
Did did the storm affect other areas of the country as well? It was it was. Okay. How bad is the storm?
Nawras 15:51
Well, yeah, the eastern cities in general affected, but I get the most impact is happening in Derna, but I guess, Susah and the other eastern cities was also affected as well. But but you the focus is mostly driven into Derna, and because of the huge impact and what happened that unfortunate. Yeah, so
Denise 16:18
I'm sorry, usually, when we do this podcast, it's like, it's very upbeat, because, you know, life is generally very good. But, but this, it's really takes your breath away a little bit when this happens in the family. It does. So I'm saying I, I will, I will put information on both the YouTube channel and in the regular podcast, there will be info in the show notes for organizations that are working there. And I will put information on how to contact Nawras for whatever you may wish to speak to her about, but she will be back next season to tell us all about her work here in the US and her family and how she got here, which is what we thought we'd be talking about. So thank you very much for coming today. And thank you everybody for listening to this rather short podcast, but go investigate how we can help Derna. Thank you so much.
Nawras 17:24
Thank you, Denise bye
Denise 17:30
Thank you for joining us at Myth, Magic, Medicine. If you have found this episode useful, you can apply for free CME credit through the link provided in the transcript. If you're not a medical professional, please remember, while we're physicians, we're not your physicians, so please consult with your own healthcare professional if you think something you have heard might apply to you or a loved one. Until next time, bye bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
