"They have seen death, not just in their families but within themselves as well," a Libyan doctor tells NPR. "Their souls are crushed, their hope is lost. How can you come back from such a thing?"
Climate change makes deadly floods, like what happened in Libya, more likely. Floods in China, Greece and Brazil in recent weeks underscore the growing danger.
In the coastal city of Derna, dams broke, sending a torrent of water that submerged whole neighborhoods. Rescue efforts are complicated by the fact that Libya is divided between rival governments.
The confirmed death toll from the weekend flooding did not include Derna, which was inaccessible, and many of the thousands missing there were believed carried away by waters after two dams burst.
Pakistani authorities are still struggling to overcome the damage caused by massive floods last summer that affected 33 million people and killed 1,739.
Floods, wildfires, heat waves and hurricanes cause billions of dollars of property damage each year. Can federal climate scientists help the insurance industry keep up?
California has been deluged by storms this winter, but fixing the state's severe drought will take more than rain. The state had deeper problems in how it uses water.
In the city of Nowshera, tent cities for flood refugees are springing up on college campuses. At one such haven, mothers spoke to NPR about their struggle to survive.
Unprecedented, deadly floods in Pakistan have submerged an area bigger than Colorado. Morning Edition spoke with the country's climate minister and a civilian volunteer about ongoing relief efforts.
Flooding exacerbated longstanding problems in a water-treatment plant in Jackson, Miss. The city of 150,000 had already been under a boil-water notice for a month.
Some 33 million people are affected by this summer's floods — the result of what U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres calls a "monsoon on steroids." He calls the flooding a "climate catastrophe."
Rains inundated hundreds of villages, swept away mud houses, flooded roads and destroyed bridges in some parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states.
At least 18 people have died as massive floods ravaged northeastern India and Bangladesh, leaving millions of homes underwater and severing transport links.
