Derna City stood beside the Mediterranean Sea, in an oasis north of the Sahara Desert. Known as the "jewel of Cyrenaica," it was an ancient city with over two thousand years of history.
Only after Libya and Egypt united did Derna City, ravaged repeatedly by civil war, gain a precious chance to catch its breath.
But fortune was unpredictable, and blessings and disasters went hand in hand. A natural disaster more terrible than war struck the ancient city.
"The flood practically wiped half the city off the map. This is truly tragic!"
On the streets of Derna City after the flood, a young reporter from Le Monde looked at the devastated ruins with a heavy expression and murmured:
"The death toll alone is over five thousand, and even more people are missing. How could this happen?"
Le Monde was France's second-largest national newspaper and its best-selling publication overseas, with subscribers in most African countries.
"The torrential rain brought by this Mediterranean Sea hurricane was unprecedented. According to the rainfall data, Derna City received the equivalent of ten years of rain in a single day."
The cameraman accompanying him was a bald Black man of around forty, with thick lips and deep-set eyes. He spoke clearly and had substance to his words.
Unlike ordinary Black people, he had evidently received a considerable education.
"After the unprecedented downpour began, the Derna River, which usually had almost no water, flooded in a very short time, breaching two reservoir dams upstream in succession. Once the dams failed, an even fiercer flood surge and mudslides destroyed Derna City."
A Mediterranean hurricane was an extremely unusual subtropical cyclone triggered by a cold vortex high above the Mediterranean Sea, capable of producing astonishing rainfall.
Mediterranean Sea hurricanes normally appeared in autumn and winter, when sea temperatures fell,