World Courant
Of all of the issues he has discovered within the blue Mediterranean waters of Derna, the various our bodies of kids with empty eye sockets and protruding bones hang-out Bashir Saqr El-Hassi essentially the most.
The 42-year-old Libyan coast guard diver solemnly describes the expertise of recovering our bodies nonetheless within the sea within the aftermath of the devastating Derna dam breach in early September.
“I am unable to assist however consider my very own kids after I decide up drowned kids. I’ve been away from my household for days,” El-Hassi mentioned, his eyes staring away.
Certainly one of his teammates hears him and intervenes. He remembers a sight that also haunts him.
“One of many our bodies was caught beneath the rubble of a constructing and the fish ate it. It was a tragic sight that I can’t describe,” he mentioned.
Bashir Saqr El-Hassi has been in Derna because the first days of the disaster (Ahmed Zidane/Al Jazeera)
The pair are made up of native divers, El-Hassi from the close by city of Sousa, who’re a part of a squadron that left to search out lacking our bodies after worldwide support groups largely left Libya, together with naval divers from Egypt, Turkey, Malta and different nations.
The eerily silent divers pile onto boats and soar into the ocean when the climate and waves allow, in an try and rescue the our bodies nonetheless within the water.
The storm burst two dams above Derna, inflicting floods that swept by means of town, sweeping away the panorama, sweeping away buildings and wiping out whole neighborhoods. The loss of life toll is estimated within the hundreds, with hundreds extra nonetheless reported lacking.
“It is a metropolis down there. Particularly previously, as a result of it was filled with our bodies. However there’s nonetheless a metropolis down there,” one of many divers mentioned.
El Hassi and his fellow divers (Ahmed Zidane/Al Jazeera)
Race towards the clock
El-Hassi has been in Derna because the first days of the disaster.
“The mission was simpler at first as a result of the our bodies have been intact. Now they’re very decomposed,” he mentioned, including that it’s a race towards time to retrieve as many our bodies as attainable earlier than they utterly decompose.
The skilled diver has been looking earlier than, however nothing ready him for what he noticed after the flood.
“Of all my expertise on diving missions retrieving the our bodies of asylum seekers who had drowned at sea, this was by far essentially the most troublesome,” he mentioned.
The divers assist one another earlier than their each day missions. What they noticed is a part of their collective reminiscence, of their hardest experiences collectively, encountering loss of life daily, far-off from their households.
Earlier than each dive, El-Hassi talks to his spouse and kids, whom he doesn’t see for days.
“I really feel worry and anxiousness. This expertise touched me deeply. I maintain desirous about my household and what in the event that they have been those to endure this horrible destiny,” he mentioned with a numb expression.
The divers assist one another put together for the search within the waters (Ahmed Zidane/Al Jazeera)
Pushed by a way of humanity
It is one other day and El-Hassi and his workforce put together to seek for extra flood victims.
He makes certain his oxygen tank is full so he can keep underwater so long as attainable. Some divers will make the soar with out oxygen tanks for better velocity and mobility, he mentioned.
He and the workforce captain then head to dive websites the place they seek for extra our bodies.
They’ve marked seven submerged automobiles to verify throughout this dive. They’ve been washed into the ocean and no search has but been carried out for drowned passengers.
Earlier than they realize it, the grim day is over and one other search is accomplished. El-Hassi and the divers return to Derna’s Mina port after the grueling mission.
El-Hassi and the workforce captain head to diving websites searching for extra our bodies (Ahmed Zidane/Al Jazeera)
Whereas that is undoubtedly his most troublesome mission, it’s one which El-Hassi believes in with all his coronary heart, pushed by his sense of humanity.
Your complete workforce feels the burden of the duty entrusted to them: serving to the households lastly discover closure and put their family members to relaxation.
“The automobiles we inspected in the present day have been empty,” El-Hassi mentioned. ‘Tomorrow, if the waves and climate allow, we’ll search for one other place.’
This story was revealed in collaboration with Egab.
The Libyan divers face horror daily to retrieve Derna’s lifeless | Floods
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