Name: リビア最大の都市が数分で消滅した理由 (How One of Libya’s Biggest Cities Vanished in Minutes)
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T15:57:59.000Z
Duration: 34 min 32 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

September 11th, perhaps more than any other date in the year, is one that lives in particular infamy, especially within the United States and across the Western world for the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks that took place across the U.S. East Coast that day. But exactly 22 years later to the date after those attacks, on September 11th, 2023, the same date would deliver the world another monumental tragedy that only managed to capture the world's headlines for a much shorter period of time, but was no less catastrophic in scale on the other side of the world in Libya.

9月11日は、おそらくその年の他のどの日よりも、特に米国内および西欧諸国において、その日に米国東海岸全域で起こったアルカイダ・テロ攻撃で悪名高い日である。しかし、この同時多発テロからちょうど22年後の2023年9月11日、同じ日付は、世界のヘッドラインを飾った期間ははるかに短かったものの、地球の裏側のリビアで起きた大惨事に勝るとも劣らない規模の、もうひとつの重大な悲劇を世界にもたらすことになる。

仮定法過去

Early on the morning of that fateful date, a once-in-a-thousand-year storm dumped an unprecedented level of rainfall across eastern Libya that rapidly filled up the reservoirs behind two dams placed along a seasonal river that led into the Libyan city of Derna, which at that time had a population of around 90,000 people. One after the other, the enormous water loads placed on each of the dams proved too much for them to bear and led to their catastrophic failures, sending a titanic surge of water tumbling down through the valley directly toward the city as if it were a tsunami heading from within the interior rather than from the sea. At about 3 a.m. early in the morning with little to no warning, the water crashed into the city as it was sleeping with apocalyptic results. As much as one quarter of the entire city of Derna was obliterated within minutes. Entire city blocks and buildings were annihilated and swept up by the surge out into the sea. As many as 24,000 people who lived in the city were killed during the disaster, nearly a third of Derna's entire population immediately before the disaster, which easily made it the deadliest dam collapse disaster of the entire 21st century, and among the deadliest ever seen on record anywhere in human history. And here's how it all happened and why it all went so horribly wrong that night. Derna itself is a city on the northeastern coast of Libya at the easternmost edge of the Jebel Aktar region, the rainiest part of Libya and one of the very few forested areas in the country. The Jebel Aktar region is a highly fertile upland area with high elevation that's cut across by several narrow valleys and seasonal rivers that are known as Wadis, which are dry for much of the year and only fill up during storms.

その運命の日の早朝、1000年に一度という暴風雨がリビア東部にかつてない大雨を降らせ、当時人口約9万人だったリビアの都市デルナにつながる季節河川沿いに設置された2つのダムの貯水池を急速に満杯にした。ダムにかかる莫大な水量に耐えかねて決壊し、まるで海からではなく内陸から津波が押し寄せるかのように、巨大な水流が谷を伝ってデルナ市に向かって押し寄せたのだ。早朝3時頃、ほとんど何の前触れもなく、水は眠りについていた街に激突し、終末的な結果をもたらした。デルナの街全体の4分の1が数分で消滅した。街区や建物全体が消滅

様態の副詞

One of these seasonal rivers in this location is the Wadi Derna, which begins higher up in the nearby mountains roughly 800 meters above sea level before snaking down into the Mediterranean

この地の季節河川のひとつがワディ・デルナで、標高約800メートルの山々から地中海へと蛇行しながら流れ落ちている。

Sea over a 115 kilometer long and very narrow course. Naturally, the Jebel Aktar region is one of the most densely populated parts of Libya, which is otherwise mostly covered by arid deserts, and so it's long been the population core of eastern Libya, leading to multiple significant settlements in the area like Benghazi, which was settled along the mouth of the seasonal Wadi

全長115キロの非常に狭いコースに海がある。当然ながら、ジェベル・アクタル地域は、乾燥した砂漠が大部分を占めるリビアで最も人口密度の高い地域のひとつであり、古くからリビア東部の人口の中心地であった。

Derna on the Mediterranean shoreline. The narrow geography of the Wadi Derna and the still arid climate it's located in meant that flash floods through the valley were a frequent problem that

地中海沿岸のデルナ。ワディ・デルナの狭い地形と乾燥した気候は、渓谷を流れる鉄砲水が頻繁に起こることを意味する。

Derna's residents furthest downstream had to deal with. The first time that a major flash flood was reported in the Wadi Derna was in 1942 by the German army's Afrika Korps, which reportedly caused them serious losses. Further major flash floods were reported in the area in 1956, 1959, and again in 1968, before the Libyan authorities finally decided to do something about it.

最も下流に位置するデルナの住民が対処しなければならなかった。ワディ・デルナで初めて大規模な鉄砲水が報告されたのは1942年で、ドイツ軍のアフリカコルプスによるものだった。1956年、1959年、そして1968年にもこの地域で大規模な鉄砲水が報告され、リビア当局は最終的に対策を講じることにした。

Shortly after Muammar Gaddafi came into power in Libya, his government commissioned the help of a

ムアンマル・カダフィがリビアで権力を握った直後、同国政府はある組織に協力を依頼した。

Yugoslavian company to come in and build out a series of dams along the Wadi Derna to control the area's flash flooding problem, with the construction taking place between 1973 and 1977.

この地域の鉄砲水問題を解決するため、ユーゴスラビアの企業がワディ・デルナ沿いにダムを建設することになり、1973年から1977年にかけて建設が行われた。

Ultimately, the Yugoslavian company constructed two rock-filled dams along the Wadi Derna at different locations, with different heights and different reservoir capacities. The Alpilad Dam, nearest to the city of Derna, was built smaller at 45 meters in height with a reservoir capacity of 1.5 million cubic meters, while the larger Bumansor Dam was constructed further behind, higher up in the mountains at 220 meters above sea level in elevation, with a 75 meter dam height and a reservoir capacity for 22.5 million cubic meters. Both of the dams were essentially constructed with a clay core in the center, with the embankments on both of their sides filled in with rocks and stones. A sturdy configuration, but one that's vulnerable to rapid erosion if water overflows the top of the structure, which would eventually prove to be a part of the dam's ultimate undoings. Back then in the 1970s, the Yugoslavian construction company that was building the dams estimated that the one in a thousand and one in ten thousand year flood volumes for the larger

最終的に、ユーゴスラビア企業はワディ・デルナ沿いに、高さも貯水容量も異なる2つの岩を積み上げたダムを建設した。デルナ市に最も近いアルピラド・ダムは、高さ45メートル、貯水容量150万立方メートルと小さめに建設され、より大きなブマンソール・ダムはそのさらに奥、標高220メートルの山中に建設され、ダムの高さは75メートル、貯水容量は2250万立方メートルであった。どちらのダムも、基本的には中央に粘土のコアを置き、両側の堤防を岩や石で埋めて建設された。頑丈な構造だが、構造物の上部に水があふれると急速に浸食されや

Bumansor Dam were 14 million cubic meters of water and 22.5 million cubic meters of water respectively, which, as it would ultimately turn out, would prove to be grossly incorrect on September 11th, 2023. So remember these numbers for later. That being said though, the Yugoslavian construction company also recommended at the time the construction of a third dam along the Wadi Derna even further upstream from the Bumansor Dam, which was never attempted. Had it actually been built, it would have reduced the contributing watershed to the Bumansor Dam from 466 square kilometers to only 140 square kilometers, which would have greatly diminished the total load placed upon it decades later during the storm in 2023. Over the years that followed, while Gaddafi was still in power in Libya, there were multiple warning signs concerning the Wadi Derna Dam's reliability and safety. In 1998, 25 years after the dams were completed, there were reports made about significant cracks and other defects that were detected in them. Later in 2003, a Swiss consultancy firm that was hired by the Libyans to study the dams ominously concluded that the

ブマンソール・ダムの水量はそれぞれ1,400万立方メートル、2,250万立方メートルであったが、結局のところ、これは2023年9月11日に重大な誤りを証明することになる。この数字は後々のために覚えておこう。とはいえ、ユーゴスラビアの建設会社は当時、ブマンソール・ダムのさらに上流のワディ・デルナ沿いに第3のダムを建設することも勧めていたが、これは実現しなかった。実際に建設されていれば、ブマンソール・ダムへの流域面積は466平方キロメートルからわずか140平方キロメートルに減少し、数十年後の2023年の暴風雨

Yugoslavian company that had built them had vastly underestimated the once in a thousand and once in ten thousand year flood volumes for the dams, and that the reservoir capacities were designed much smaller than they actually should have been. According to Derna's deputy mayor at the time of the disaster in 2023, the dams along the Wadi Derna had not been maintained for more than 21 years before the disaster ever since 2002. But much of the reason for that was Libya's own internal chaos that began in the early 2010s. After the Swiss consultancy firm concluded that the dams required urgent maintenance in 2003, the Libyan government eventually contracted a Turkish construction company called Arcel to perform the maintenance work and to build that other third dam in 2007.

ダムを建設したユーゴスラビアの会社は、ダムの1000年に1度、1万年に1度の洪水量を大幅に過小評価しており、貯水池の容量は実際に設計されるべき容量よりもはるかに小さく設計されていた。2023年の災害当時、デルナの副市長によると、ワディ・デルナ沿いのダムは2002年以来、災害前の21年間以上メンテナンスされていなかったという。しかし、その理由の多くは、2010年代初頭に始まったリビア国内の混乱にあった。スイスのコンサルタント会社が2003年にダムに緊急メンテナンスが必要だと結論づけた後、リビア政府は結局、ト

But multiple delays and disputes over payments ended up stalling the work at the dams, and they didn't manage to get started until three years later in 2010. And by then, within only a few months of them getting started, Libya just collapsed into its unprecedented era of chaos that's continued into the present day. As the Arab Spring swept across the Middle East and North

しかし、度重なる遅延と支払いをめぐる紛争がダム建設を停滞させ、3年後の2010年まで工事を開始することができなかった。それからわずか数カ月でリビアは未曾有の大混乱に陥り、現在に至っている。アラブの春」が中東と北アフリカを席巻したとき

Africa, revolts against Gaddafi's more than 40-year-long rule in Libya erupted in February of 2011, which rapidly escalated into full-blown civil war in the country after Gaddafi's troops opened fire on crowds of protesters in the city of Benghazi. Within days of that event, the city of Derna had been taken over by Libyan rebels who were opposed to the Gaddafi government, who called themselves the National Transitional Council. And so they broke the city and its dams away from the central government. Derna would never be retaken by the Gaddafi regime again, and over the next eight months, Libya would descend into enormous violence between Gaddafi loyalists and rebels that eventually saw NATO initiating a military intervention in the country with a massive aerial bombing campaign that was targeted against Gaddafi's military assets, which enabled the rebels on the ground to overthrow Gaddafi's government by the end of October 2011. Gaddafi himself was later found by the rebels and summarily tortured and executed. While across the eight-month civil war, it's believed that more than 30,000 Libyans were killed and around 50,000 others wounded. During the war, the Turkish construction company that had only just started performing the maintenance work on the Wadi Derna dams a few months previously, understandably left the country and ceased all of their operations, leaving all of their equipment and machinery at the construction site behind, which was at some point completely pillaged and looted by rebels.

アフリカのリビアで、カダフィによる40年以上にわたる支配に反対する反乱が2011年2月に勃発し、カダフィ軍がベンガジ市でデモ隊の群衆に発砲した後、同国は本格的な内戦へと急速にエスカレートした。その事件から数日以内に、デルナ市はカダフィ政権に反対するリビアの反体制派によって占領され、彼らは国家暫定評議会と名乗った。そして彼らは中央政府から街とダムを切り離した。カダフィ政権がデルナを奪還することは二度となかった。その後8カ月間、リビアはカダフィ支持派と反体制派の間で甚大な暴力に見舞われ、最終的にはNATOがカ

Allegedly, according to a Libyan state-run audit agency, more than two million dollars worth of funds were allocated by the new Libyan transitional government to continue the maintenance work on the

リビア国営の監査機関によると、リビアの新政権は、リビア国営放送の保守作業を継続するために、200万ドル相当の資金を割り当てたという。

Wadi Derna dams in 2012 and 2013, but no further work on them was ever initiated, which has led to troubling accusations that those earmarked funds were embezzled by corrupt Libyan government officials instead. And the momentary calm that came over Libya by the end of 2011, following the collapse of the Gaddafi regime, would not last for very long either. In early 2014, the Libyan transitional government that was at that time led by Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, entered into a renewed contract with the same Turkish construction company to restart their renovation work at the

2012年と2013年にワディ・デルナ・ダムが建設されたが、それ以降の工事は開始されなかった。このため、予定されていた資金が腐敗したリビア政府高官によって横領されたのではないかという厄介な非難が巻き起こっている。2011年末のカダフィ政権崩壊後、リビアに訪れた一瞬の平穏も長くは続かなかった。2014年初頭、当時アリ・ゼイダン首相が率いていたリビア暫定政府は、同じトルコの建設会社と再契約を結び、カダフィ宮殿での改修工事を再開した。

Wadi Derna dams again, with the Libyan government agreeing to financially compensate the company for all of its stolen and lost equipment. But this time, within only weeks of that new deal being signed, Libya would be thrown right back into chaos again. In May of that year, a disputed election in the country led to Libya shattering into two different rival governments and the resumption of civil war in the country between them. A western government based in Tripoli that was recognized by the UN, and an eastern government based in Tobruk that had the support of the Libyan National Army.

ワディ・デルナ・ダムはリビア政府によって再び建設され、リビア政府は同社が盗難に遭い、紛失したすべての設備を金銭的に補償することに同意した。しかし、この新たな契約が結ばれてからわずか数週間で、リビアは再び混乱に陥ることになる。その年の5月、リビアでは選挙が争点となり、2つの異なる対立政権に分裂し、両政権間で内戦が再開された。国連が承認したトリポリに本拠を置く西側政府と、リビア国民軍の支持を受けたトブルクに本拠を置く東側政府である。

Ali Zeidan, the prime minister who had signed the renewed maintenance contract with the Turkish construction company, was also overthrown by his own government and fled the country in exile to

トルコの建設会社と更新保守契約を結んだアリ・ゼイダン首相も自国の政府によって打倒され、国外に亡命した。

Morocco. Meanwhile, the security situation within the city of Derna itself would rapidly deteriorate even further. Within only months of the second Libyan civil war beginning, ISIS affiliated militants in the east of Libya were able to capitalize on the power vacuum that had emerged and managed to seize control over the city of Derna by October of 2014, rendering it impossible for any construction company to resume maintenance work on the Wadi Derna dams nearby.

モロッコ一方、デルナ市内の治安状況は急速に悪化した。第2次リビア内戦が始まってからわずか数カ月で、リビア東部のISIS系武装勢力が出現した権力の空白に乗じて、2014年10月までにデルナ市を掌握することに成功し、近隣のワディ・デルナ・ダムのメンテナンス作業を再開する建設会社は一切不可能となった。

Derna then became the epicenter of ISIS's operations in Libya, who ruled the city uncontested until a coalition of rival radical Islamist groups within the city, led by Al-Qaeda, who called themselves the Shura Council, started a revolt against ISIS's rule in the city in June of 2015.

その後、デルナはリビアにおけるISISの活動の中心地となり、シュラ評議会を名乗るアルカイダを中心とする市内のイスラム過激派グループの連合が2015年6月にISISの支配に対する反乱を起こすまで、ISISはこの都市を支配していた。

Nearly a year later, by April of 2016, the Al-Qaeda led Shura Council had finally emerged victorious and had pushed ISIS out of the city, which then led to Derna becoming dominated by

それから約1年後の2016年4月、アルカイダ率いるシュラ評議会はついに勝利を収め、ISISを街から追い出した。

Al-Qaeda instead. Not that much better to deal with from the perspective of a foreign construction company who wanted to resume maintenance work on the dams within the city. Derna then became a hot bed of militant Al-Qaeda activity and operations, from which Al-Qaeda organized multiple attacks on both Libya and Egypt. It didn't take very long for the Libyan National Army, which was led by

代わりにアルカイダだ。市内にあるダムのメンテナンス作業を再開したい外国の建設会社からすれば、それほど良い対応ではなかった。デルナはその後、過激派アルカイダの活動や作戦の温床となり、アルカイダはそこからリビアとエジプト両国への攻撃を何度も組織した。が率いるリビア国民軍がリビアとエジプトを攻撃するのにそれほど時間はかからなかった。

Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and which was backing the Eastern Tobruk-based government in the greater second civil war, to decide on a plan to drive Al-Qaeda out of the city. So in August of 2016, merely months after Al-Qaeda had pushed ISIS out of the city, Khalifa Haftar led the Libyan

ハリファ・ハフタル野戦司令官は、第二次内戦で東部トブルクを拠点とする政府を支援し、アルカイダを都市から追い出す計画を決定した。そこで2016年8月、アルカイダがISISを街から追い出してからわずか数カ月後、ハリファ・ハフタルはリビア軍を率いて、ISISを街から追い出した。

National Army into beginning a siege of Derna. The siege intensified in 2017 when the Shura

国軍はデルナ包囲を開始した。包囲は2017年に激化した。

Council within Derna shot down one of his fighter jets and captured its pilot alive, only to publicly execute him later, drawing Haftar's fury. By May of 2018, after being under siege by the Libyan National Army for the past 21 months, Khalifa Haftar declared that his efforts to reach a peaceful conclusion with the Shura Council held up in Derna had reached a dead end and that an attack on the city was the only path forward. He ordered his forces to begin advancing in Derna and so began a ferocious urban house-to-house fight in the city between them and the Shura Council. By the end of June in 2018, Haftar had declared that his forces had taken full control over the city, but Al-Qaeda and the Shura Council continued waging a violent insurgency in Derna for several more months, until they finally surrendered in February of 2019. Derna had therefore been the site of heavy fighting and frequently contested control between ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Libyan

デルナ内の評議会は彼の戦闘機の1機を撃墜し、そのパイロットを生け捕りにしたが、後に彼を公開処刑し、ハフタルの怒りを買った。2018年5月、過去21カ月間リビア国軍に包囲されていたハリファ・ハフタルは、デルナで拘束されているシュラ評議会との平和的妥結に向けた努力は行き詰まり、デルナへの攻撃が唯一の道だと宣言した。ハフタルはデルナへの進軍を命じ、シュラ評議会との激しい市街戦が始まった。2018年6月末までに、ハフタルは自軍が市街を完全に掌握したと宣言したが、アルカイダとシュラ評議会はさらに数カ月間デルナで激し

National Army for nearly five years between 2014 and 2019. And so, understandably, no construction or maintenance work on the dams leading into the city was ever resumed despite the signed contract that happened at the beginning of 2014. And by this point in early 2019, even after Derna was finally firmly under the control of the Libyan National Army, Libya was still split between two rival warring governments. What would eventually be known as the Government of National Unity, or the GNU, based in the west, that was the recognized government of Libya by the UN, and the Government of National Stability, or the GNS, based in the east, that was increasingly being dominated by the Libyan National Army and its leader, Khalifa Haftar, who was increasingly taking on the role of a kind of warlord in Libya. The fighting between these two sides in Libya would continue on for more than another year after the Libyan National Army's capture of Derna, until October of 2020, when they finally agreed on a ceasefire after the past six and a half years of civil war that had killed another 15,000 people in the country. The ceasefire left Libya split almost in half between the two rival governments, and throughout the conflict, the Turkish government came to steadily back the western GNU government for geopolitical reasons.

2014年から2019年にかけての約5年間、国軍。そのため、当然のことながら、2014年初頭に締結された契約にもかかわらず、市内に通じるダムの建設やメンテナンス作業が再開されることはなかった。そして2019年初頭のこの時点では、デルナが最終的にリビア国軍の支配下にしっかりと入った後も、リビアはまだ2つの対立する戦時政府の間で分裂していた。西側を拠点とし、国連からリビアの政府として承認されている国民統合政府（GNU）と、東側を拠点とし、リビア国軍とその指導者であるカリファ・ハフタルが支配するようになり、リビ

In early 2020, when the civil war in Libya was still ongoing, Turkey sent dozens of advisors to the GNU, along with aerial and naval support, and facilitated the transfer of around 18,000 mercenaries from Syria, all to fight on the GNU's behalf on the ground against Khalifa Haftar's forces. Because of this, all of the territory in eastern Libya that was dominated by Haftar's forces, including Derna, began evicting Turkish companies because they perceived them as being potentially spies and sympathetic to the rival government in western Libya, which, of course, included the Turkish company that had been contracted to resume the maintenance work on the dams by Derna. All of this geopolitical chaos ultimately meant that the dams by Derna, which were already reported to be in a state of disrepair as early as 1998, were basically left without hardly any maintenance at all for decades. And despite signing a contract with the Libyan government to resume work on the dams in 2014, the Turkish construction company Arsel never again returned to Derna after years and years of chaos in the region prevented them from ever being able to do so. Even after the ceasefire came into effect in

リビアの内戦がまだ続いていた2020年初頭、トルコは数十人の顧問をGNUに派遣し、航空支援と海軍支援を行い、シリアから約1万8000人の傭兵の移送を促進した。このため、デルナを含むリビア東部のハフタル軍が支配する地域はすべて、トルコ企業をスパイと見なし、リビア西部の敵対政府に同調していると見なして立ち退きを始めた。こうした地政学的な混乱は結局、1998年の時点ですでに荒廃が報告されていたデルナのダムは、基本的に数十年にわたってほとんどメンテナンスされることなく放置されることになった。そして、2014年にリ

Libya in October of 2020 that ended the outright fighting across the country, lingering political uncertainty within Libya and the COVID-19 pandemic prevented any construction company from still being able to return back to Derna. Even companies who might have been interested had multiple legal and political challenges to work through. From whom would they acquire permission to resume maintenance work on the Derna dams? From the western-based GNU government in Libya that was recognized by the UN but that also didn't actually control Derna? Or from the eastern-based

2020年10月にリビア全土で戦闘が終結したが、リビア国内に残る政治的不安とCOVID-19の流行により、建設会社はデルナに戻ることができなかった。関心を抱いていたかもしれない企業でさえ、複数の法的・政治的課題を抱えていた。デルナ・ダムのメンテナンス作業を再開する許可を誰から得るのか。国連に承認されたリビアの西側GNU政府からか？それとも東部を拠点とする

GNS government that theoretically controlled Derna? Or from the warlord Khalifa Haftar, who is the actual de facto authority who had the final say on what actually happened in the east in Derna? All of this made the political situation rather unclear in the east even after the ceasefire had ended the civil war. And that strained the ability for any company to effectively operate in the east. And then in September of 2023, 13 years after the Turkish construction company had briefly carried out some limited maintenance work on the Derna dams back in 2010, came the storm that would ultimately destroy the dams called Storm Daniel. Storm Daniel initially formed over the Mediterranean central Ionian Sea in early September of 2023, before it first moved over the Balkans where it caused extensive damage and loss of life before it then shifted towards

理論的にはデルナを支配していたGNS政府から？それとも、東部デルナで実際に何が起こったかについて最終的な決定権を握っていた事実上の権力者である軍閥ハリファ・ハフタルからか？このため、停戦によって内戦が終結した後も、東部の政治状況はかなり不透明だった。そのため、どの企業も東部で効果的に事業を展開することができなかった。そして2023年9月、トルコの建設会社が2010年にデルナ・ダムの限定的なメンテナンス作業を一時的に行ってから13年後、ダニエル嵐と呼ばれる最終的にダムを破壊することになる嵐がやってきた。ダニ

Libya's central gulf of Sirtea on the 9th of September. Record summer temperatures had meant that the waters in this part of the Mediterranean were unusually warm for this time of year, which fueled the power of Storm Daniel as it approached Libya and turbocharged it into a phenomenon that's known as a medicaine. A sort of cyclone with the characteristics of a hurricane that occasionally form in the Mediterranean region, which is where the term gets its name from. On the 10th of

9月9日、リビア中央部のシルテア湾。記録的な夏の気温のため、地中海のこの地域の海水はこの時期としては異常に暖かく、これがリビアに接近したストーム・ダニエルのパワーを煽り、メディカインとして知られる現象へとターボをかけた。地中海沿岸で時折発生する、ハリケーンの特徴を持つサイクロンの一種で、これがメディカインの名前の由来である。10日

September, the medicaine made landfall in eastern Libya near the city of Benghazi, with cyclone-rated winds that reached upwards of 80 miles an hour. And it dumped an absolutely massive amount of rainfall all across the region. The Albedo weather station, located right here only about 20 kilometers away from the extent of the Wadi Derna basin, recorded a whopping 414.1 millimeters of rainfall within only 24 hours between the 10th and 11th of September during the storm. Its highest ever 24-hour measurement ever on record. Now, in order for you to understand how massive of an amount of rainfall that is for this part of the world, consider that the usual annual rainfall recorded here throughout an entire year is usually somewhere between 280 to 500 millimeters.

9月、リビア東部のベンガジ市近郊に上陸したメディケインは、サイクロン並みの風速で時速80マイルを超えた。そしてこの地域一帯に大量の雨を降らせた。ワディ・デルナ流域から20キロほどしか離れていないこのアルベド気象観測所では、暴風雨のあった9月10日から11日にかけてのわずか24時間で、なんと414.1ミリの降雨量を記録した。これは24時間降雨量としては過去最高の記録である。この雨量が世界のこの地域にとってどれほど膨大な量であるかを理解していただくために、通常、この地で記録される1年を通しての年間降雨量が28

Meaning that Derna received an entire year's worth of its usual rainfall in only about 24 hours.

つまり、デルナは例年1年分の降雨量をわずか24時間で得たことになる。

The frequency of these kinds of storms impacting the area around Derna has been the subject of much academic debate since then. According to one academic paper published by the journal Nature in 2025, this level of rainfall unleashed by Storm Daniel that day was indeed a freak natural occurrence, with an expected frequency of more than once in a thousand years. However, according to another academic paper that utilized different methodologies that was published by the journal Science also in 2025, this level of rainfall could have actually had an expected frequency of about once every few decades or so. Meaning that depending on who you ask, this storm was either a freak once in a thousand year event, or it was a more routine once every few decades kind of storm that should have been more properly anticipated. Either way, the amount of water that the storm dumped into the

この種の暴風雨がデルナ周辺地域を襲う頻度については、それ以来、多くの学術的議論がなされてきた。2025年に『ネイチャー』誌が発表したある学術論文によれば、あの日ダニエル暴風雨がもたらしたこのレベルの降雨は、まさに異常な自然現象であり、その頻度は1000年に一度以上と予想されている。しかし、2025年に同じく『サイエンス』誌が発表した別の学術論文によれば、このレベルの降雨は、実際には数十年に一度程度の頻度であった可能性があるとのことである。つまり、この暴風雨は1000年に一度の異常気象であったか、あるいは数

Wadi Derna overnight between the 10th and 11th of September that year seems to have far exceeded the dam's design specifications. Remember the numbers that I mentioned earlier for the reservoir capacities behind the two dams that the Yugoslavian Construction Company had designed for them back in the 1970s. The smaller Al-Bilad dam closest to the city of Derna had a reservoir capacity of 1.5 million cubic meters of water, while the larger Bumin-Sor dam located further upstream on the Wadi

その年の9月10日から11日にかけて、ワディ・デルナは一晩でダムの設計仕様をはるかに超えたようだ。1970年代にユーゴスラビア建設会社が設計した2つのダムの貯水容量について、先に述べた数字を思い出してほしい。デルナ市に最も近い小型のアルビラド・ダムの貯水容量は150万立方メートルで、さらに上流のワディ川沿いにある大型のブミン・ソール・ダムは150万立方メートルだった。

Derna had a reservoir capacity of 22.5 million cubic meters, which the Yugoslavian Construction

デルナの貯水池の容量は2250万立方メートルで、ユーゴスラビアの建設省は、この貯水池の建設に着手した。

Company who built them in the 1970s estimated to be equivalent to a once in 10,000 year storm volume in the region. Overnight between the 10th and 11th of September, Storm Daniel might have dropped as much as 100 million cubic meters of water into the Wadi Derna Valley, nearly five times greater than the supposedly once in 10,000 year reservoir capacity of the larger Bumin-Sor dam was designed to handle. Libyan officials who were operating the dam that night would later report that the

1970年代にこの貯水池を建設した会社は、この地域の1万年に一度の暴風雨量に相当すると見積もっていた。9月10日から11日にかけての一夜、ダニエル嵐はワディ・デルナ渓谷に1億立方メートルもの水を降らせた可能性がある。その夜、ダムを運営していたリビア政府関係者は、後にこう報告することになる。

Bumin-Sor dam only had a maximum water discharge capacity of just 170 cubic meters per second, but then in order to fully discharge all of the water that was entering into the Wadi Derna that night, they would have had to discharge about 1,200 cubic meters of water per second instead, seven times greater than what the dam was actually designed to do. These enormous pressures on the dams combined with the decades of lack of upkeep and maintenance on them would ultimately spell their doom. The reservoirs in both of the dams began filling up around 8 p.m. on September 10th, but by midnight they were still contained and only about halfway full according to later eyewitness testimony. But after midnight, as the storm intensified and waters began arriving from further upstream, they began rapidly filling up. Within only another half hour in the early morning of September the 11th, the Bumin-Sor dam's reservoir became completely filled up at around 1230 a.m.

ブーミン・ソール・ダムの最大放水量は毎秒170立方メートルしかなかったが、その夜ワディ・デルナに流入した水をすべて放流するには、毎秒約1,200立方メートルの水を放流しなければならなかった。このようなダムへの莫大な圧力と、数十年にわたるダムの維持管理不足が相まって、ダムは最終的に破滅を迎えることになる。両ダムの貯水池は9月10日の午後8時ごろに満水になり始めたが、後の目撃証言によると、真夜中までにはまだ半分ほどしか満たされていなかった。しかし真夜中以降、嵐が激しさを増し、さらに上流から水が到達し始めると、

and the water began spilling over the dam's top, while the lower Al-Bilad dam's reservoir had also filled up by 1250 a.m. and began overtopping as well. These overtoppings of the dams began gradually eroding away the dam's bases, steadily undermining their structural integrities to the point that would eventually lead to their catastrophic collapses. By 2 a.m. in the morning, the water volume in the reservoir behind the larger Bumin-Sor dam had reached a critical level and was a full two meters higher than the actual top of the dam was, leading to two meters worth of water overtopping, spilling over the dam's wall over onto the other side. The security that was present at the dam had noticed what was going on and reported it to the relevant authorities, but the messaging that was carried out by the GNS government in Derna that day was mixed and confusing. Immediately prior to the arrival of Storm Daniel on the 9th of September, the Derna city authorities had imposed a curfew and ordered all of the city's residents to remain in place within their homes, unwittingly concentrating virtually the entire city's population directly in the path of the disaster that would soon take place. Then, the following day on the 10th of September, other city authorities in Derna began calling for residents of some of the houses on the coastline to begin evacuating, presenting a series of contradictory orders. Due to Derna's recent violent history and the fact that the GNS government had only established control over it four years previously after a years-long siege, a lot of Derna's residents also didn't exactly trust the local authorities' advice, though it appears that in most cases the government ordered the residents of the city to shelter in place, while in reality they should have almost all evacuated completely. At approximately 2 40 a.m.

午前1250時までにアルビラド・ダム下部の貯水池も満水となり、同様に越水が始まった。これらのダムの越水は、ダムの基礎を徐々に侵食し始め、ダムの構造的一体性を着実に損ない、最終的には壊滅的な崩壊に至るまでになった。午前2時ごろには、ブミン・ソール・ダムの背後の貯水池の水量は限界レベルに達し、実際のダムの天端よりも2メートルも高くなっていた。ダムにいた警備員は事態に気づき、関係当局に報告したが、その日デルナのGNS政府が行ったメッセージは錯綜し、混乱していた。9月9日のダニエル嵐の到来直前、デルナ市当局は夜間

on the morning of September 11th, after being ground down under the overwhelming and building pressure of the overflowing reservoir behind it for the past two and a half hours, during which the city could have been evacuated but wasn't, the upper Boumensour dam finally buckled and catastrophically collapsed, sending a massive flood surge of approximately 30 million cubic meters of water thundering downstream the Wadi Derna directly towards the city of Derna and its 90,000 inhabitants further downstream. Roughly equivalent to about 30 empire state buildings all full of water, the surge methodically poured down the rest of the valley as if it were a funnel, concentrating the water volume together as if it were a tsunami over the next 20 minutes before it ultimately smashed into the lower Albilad dam next at approximately 3 a.m. in the morning, immediately shattering it and rushing into the densely populated city of Derna itself, where nearly everyone there was still busy sleeping. As though it were a monster, the wall of water then tore through the unexpected sleeping city to utterly cataclysmic effect in a disaster whose scale has rarely ever been experienced. Before and after photographs taken of the city are a good way to contextualize the scale of what took place early that morning. Entire city blocks of Derna were obliterated by the surge, their residents immediately overwhelmed by the water as they slept and carried out to the sea. Thousands of buildings in the city were destroyed or damaged within only minutes by the water's relentless fury. All of the bridges that crossed the Wadi Derna within the city were crushed and wiped out, while 5 out of 7 of the roads that led into the city were also destroyed as well, leaving the city geographically split in half and largely isolated in the aftermath of the disaster that enormously complicated the future search and rescue and recovery operations. In total, it is estimated that around one quarter of all the buildings in Derna simply disappeared within minutes during the disaster, with large sections of the city being dragged out by the waters into the Mediterranean Sea. An unknown number of Derna's residents were carried out by the flood waters along with their buildings out into the Mediterranean Sea as well.

9月11日の朝、ダム背後の貯水池から溢れ出る圧倒的な圧力に押しつぶされること2時間半、市街地は避難できたにもかかわらず避難させられなかったが、ついにブーメンスールダム上流が決壊し、約3000万立方メートルの巨大な洪水サージがワディ・デルナの下流、デルナ市とそのさらに下流に住む9万人の住民に向かって押し寄せた。およそエンパイア・ステート・ビル約30棟分の水を湛えた大波は、まるで漏斗のように整然と谷の残りの部分を流下し、20分以上かけて津波のように水量を集中させ、最終的に午前3時頃に次のアルビラド下流ダムに激

Over the following several days, multiple naval search and rescue teams that were dispatched to recover bodies and find survivors found hundreds of bodies that had washed away as far as 20 kilometers away from the city. Almost miraculously, one living survivor from the disaster was actually found and rescued the next day after having somehow drifted about 11 nautical miles off of the coast of Derna.

その後数日間、遺体の回収と生存者の捜索のために派遣された複数の海軍捜索救助隊が、街から20キロも離れた場所に流された数百の遺体を発見した。ほとんど奇跡的なことに、この災害の生存者1人が、どういうわけかデルナの沖合約11海里を漂流した後、翌日実際に発見され救助された。

Total estimates of the number of people who died in Derna that morning are disputed, but everybody agrees that the number ranges into the thousands, with lower estimates pointing to around 11,000 and higher estimates up to as many as 24,000 or more. Meaning that on the higher end, as much as nearly one-third of Derna's population may have died during the disaster, while most of the rest of the survivors were rendered homeless and temporarily displaced. Put another way, the disaster that struck Derna in the early morning of September 11th, 2023 killed more Libyans within a few minutes than the entire second civil war across the entire country killed over six and a half years between 2014 and 2020. Derna, a major city of 90,000 people whose founding dated back to the ancient Greeks, was almost completely destroyed. It seemed that the disaster was ultimately the result of multiple compounding factors. When the dams were initially built by the Yugoslavian construction company back in the 1970s, they were not designed to handle the volume of water that was dumped on them by

その朝、デルナで死亡した人々の総数の見積もりは、異論もあるが、数千人に及ぶという点では誰もが認めるところであり、低い見積もりでは約11,000人、高い見積もりでは24,000人以上にもなる。つまり、高く見積もれば、デルナの人口の3分の1近くが災害で死亡し、残りの生存者のほとんどはホームレスとなり、一時的に避難生活を余儀なくされたことになる。別の言い方をすれば、2023年9月11日早朝にデルナを襲った災害は、数分のうちに、2014年から2020年までの6年半の間にリビア全土で起きた第2次内戦の全死亡者数を上

Storm Daniel in 2023, which has led to accusations that the calculations that went into constructing them in the first place were faulty to begin with. However, some researchers into the disaster have given the Yugoslavian builder some slack, as it would have been difficult for them to have predicted the course of global climate change that has taken place since then. Storm Daniel and the medicaine it evolved into in 2023 was turbocharged by the all-time high record water temperature in the Mediterranean Sea that year, which contributed to the very heavy volumes of rainfall that were dumped across the region that night, and would have been difficult to foresee during the dam's construction process back in the mid-1970s, meaning that their original calculations maybe should have been updated and fixed in hindsight. But fixing those mistakes was difficult in Libya for decades, because Libya has been continually enveloped with deep-seated political chaos ever since 2011 that prevented any maintenance and renovation work on the dams for 12 years leading up to the disaster. The timing of Libya's work with a construction company from

2023年のストーム・ダニエルの事故は、そもそも建設時の計算に誤りがあったという非難を招いた。しかし、この災害の研究者の中には、ユーゴスラビアの建設業者に若干の甘さを認めている者もいる。それというのも、その後起こった地球規模の気候変動を予測するのは困難だったからだ。ダニエル嵐とそれが2023年に発展したメディカインは、その年の地中海の史上最高の水温によってターボチャージされたもので、その夜、地域全体に降り注いだ非常に大量の雨の一因となった。2011年以来、リビアは根深い政治的混乱に包まれ続けており、災害が

Turkey was about as terrible as it possibly could have been in hindsight, with them starting work on the Derna dams in 2010, only months before the country's civil war started, and then them signing a renewed contract with the company again in early 2014, only for a second civil war in the country to erupt again only a few weeks later. Millions of dollars worth of funding that was dispersed for the dam's maintenance also never amounted to anything, leading to the troubling possibility that funds for the dam's repairs were also simply embezzled. The disaster therefore appears to have been the result of decades of neglect towards the dams, years of internal political chaos, incorrect assumptions that went into the dam's initial construction, climate change, and internal government corruption, all of which produced an enormous human tragedy in the early morning hours of September the 11th, 2023. Interestingly, in one of the academic papers written about this disaster, the one that was published in the journal Science, the researchers involved concluded that the disaster that struck Derna that morning would have actually been far less severe had the dams never actually even been constructed in the first place. Their conclusion was that it was ultimately the collapse of the upper Boumansour dam and the tsunami-like surge of water that had sent through the Wadi Derna valley that caused the most destruction in the city of Derna below. They ran several simulations of the disaster with the dams being present and other simulations that assumed there were not any dams and they concluded that without that massive surge of water that resulted from the dam's collapse in the real world, the level of destruction inflicted would have been much less. They found that if there had never been any dams at all, the peak water discharge rate flowing through the Wadi Derna would have been approximately eight times less, while the area within the city of Derna that flooded was 67% larger with the dams being present. We might never know if their calculations were ultimately right, but multiple Libyan officials have been arrested and jailed over their alleged responsibilities for the disaster taking place since. Twelve former Libyan officials who were responsible for managing the country's dams were arrested and later convicted by Libyan courts in 2024 and were sentenced to prison terms that range from 9 to 27 years behind bars, without their identities being publicly revealed. The date of September 11th carries with it a heavy legacy of tragedy, both in the United States for the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks of 2001 and in Libya for the catastrophic Derna Dam collapses of 2023. Two events that both resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people, but the same date also bears another notable event of infamy that involves both the United States and Libya alike. Precisely 11 years after the 9-11 attacks in America and 11 years before the dams at Derna and Libya collapsed, on September the 11th of 2012, just 250 kilometers away from Derna in the Libyan city of Benghazi, hundreds of armed militants belonging to the radical Islamist group known as Ansar al-Sharia launched a coordinated attack against the U.S.

トルコは2010年にデルナ・ダムの工事を開始したが、それは同国の内戦が始まるわずか数カ月前のことであり、その後、2014年初めに再び同社と更新契約を結んだが、そのわずか数週間後に同国で再び内戦が勃発するという、今にして思えば最悪の事態だった。ダムのメンテナンスのためにばらまかれた数百万ドル相当の資金も、結局は何の役にも立たず、ダムの修繕資金も単に横領されただけという厄介な可能性が出てきた。したがって、この災害はダムに対する数十年にわたる怠慢、長年にわたる政治内部の混乱、ダム建設当初の誤った想定、気候変動、

diplomatic outpost there and sparked one of the most infamous and controversial events in modern

その外交拠点は、現代において最も悪名高く、物議を醸す出来事のひとつを引き起こした。

U.S. history in the process. The overnight siege and attack on the compound ultimately resulted in the deaths of four American diplomatic and CIA officials, including who was then the acting U.S.

その過程で米国の歴史が変わった。一夜にして行われた包囲と攻撃は、最終的に4人のアメリカ外交官とCIA職員を死亡させる結果となった。

ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, the first U.S. ambassador to be killed while in office in decades and only the eighth U.S. ambassador to ever be killed while in office in the nation's entire history. In the aftermath of the attack, Benghazi became a sort of byword for political scandal in the United States. No less than 10 separate investigations into the nature of the attack were conducted by the U.S. government, none of which ever conclusively proved any wrongdoing on the part of the Obama administration and its officials who were in charge at the time.

クリストファー・スティーブンス駐リビア大使は、在任中に殺害された米国大使としてはこの数十年で初めてであり、在任中に殺害された米国大使としては米国史上8人目であった。攻撃後、ベンガジはアメリカにおける政治スキャンダルの代名詞のような存在となった。米国政府による攻撃の本質に関する調査は10回以上に及んだが、いずれもオバマ政権と当時の責任者たちの不正行為を決定的に証明するものではなかった。

Most Americans are probably very familiar with the Benghazi attack, but most of us are probably not very aware of the precise hour-by-hour events that unfolded that night during the attack, the details of what exactly happened, and why everything went so wrong that led to the first U.S.

ほとんどのアメリカ人はベンガジ攻撃についてよく知っているだろうが、その夜に攻撃中に1時間ごとに繰り広げられた正確な出来事、正確に何が起こったのか、そしてなぜすべてがうまくいかず、米国初のテロにつながったのかについては、おそらくあまり知らないだろう。

ambassador in decades getting killed. That's why I made an entire in-depth video covering everything that went down in Benghazi that night and why it became so controversial in my Modern Conflict series, which I create new videos in every single month taking deeper dives into more recent, controversial, and darker subject material surrounding modern wars, operations, and conflicts.

数十年後の大使が殺されるだからこそ私は、あの夜ベンガジで起こったこと、そしてなぜあれほど物議を醸したのか、そのすべてを網羅した徹底的なビデオを作成したのだ。私の「現代の紛争」シリーズでは、毎月新しいビデオを作成し、現代の戦争、作戦、紛争にまつわる、より最近の、物議を醸す、よりダークな題材を深く掘り下げている。

Over the past four years, I've personally created nearly 50 total episodes in Modern Conflicts covering topics as diverse as the U.S.'s manhunt for Osama bin Laden and the pathway that led up to that point in the 9-11 attacks, another hour-by-hour analysis into the events that took place during Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7th and Israel's subsequent full-scale invasion of

この4年間で、私は個人的に『Modern Conflicts』の総エピソード50本近くを作成し、オサマ・ビンラディンに対するアメリカの捜索活動や、9-11同時多発テロのそこに至るまでの道筋、また10月7日のハマスによるイスラエル攻撃とそれに続くイスラエルの本格的な侵攻の際に起こった出来事を1時間ごとに分析するなど、さまざまなトピックを取り上げてきた。

Gaza, along with how the U.S. led a coalition that eventually destroyed ISIS across Iraq and Syria, how the civil wars in Libya unfolded that led to the Durned Dams getting into such a state of disrepair in the first place, and dozens of other episodes with brand new ones like the Benghazi Embassy siege and attack coming out every single month, all exclusively on Nebula.

米国がイラクとシリアのISISを最終的に壊滅させた連合軍をどのように率いたか、リビアの内戦がどのように展開され、ダーンダムがそもそもあのような状態になったか、そしてベンガジ大使館の包囲と攻撃のような真新しいエピソードを含む数十の他のエピソードは、すべて毎月Nebulaで独占公開される。

Because of the inherently violent, controversial, and recent nature of discussing the details of what's arguably the most controversial foreign policy event in all of modern U.S. history, this episode covering the Benghazi Embassy attack would never work on YouTube, because it would instantly be demonetized and age-restricted, which means that YouTube's algorithm, which is based on showing you ads, would never be incentivized to actually show the video to you or promote it. I already deal with a very large number of my videos on YouTube getting demonetized and age-restricted as they are, and that's why I upload all of my episodes in Modern Conflicts exclusively to Nebula. And why signing up to Nebula is the absolute best thing that you can do to support me and my channel, and you'll get access to way more content than just my own exclusive Modern Conflicts series as well. Because the best part about Nebula is that it's jointly co-owned by myself and hundreds of other independent creators, that empowers us to make the projects that we're deeply excited about without any fear of being censored or demonetized like we are on YouTube. And that's why there's tons of other new unique content on Nebula that's coming out all the time too, that you'll also love. Like Bobby Broccoli's new full-length documentary, 17 Pages, that covers one of the largest scientific controversies of the 20th century. Neo's Under Exposure series that includes episodes on how the Twin Towers in New York were built, and the Kuwait oil fires during the First Gulf War. And Lindsay Ellis, who now exclusively posts all of her new videos to Nebula instead of YouTube. And so, so many others. I also know that there's a lot of streaming platforms out there right now, and you don't want to get stuck with another monthly cost to keep track of. But I also know that if you've watched this all the way through to the end, there is so much content on Nebula that you'll also love as well. And so much more coming out with every new month that you could consider a lifetime membership to Nebula. You just pay once, and then you'll get lifetime access to everything that I and hundreds of other creators will ever produce on Nebula, for as long as we both last. And then you'll never have to worry about a recurring subscription or ads ever again. That is the single best way possible to support what I'm doing here on Real Life Lore. But even if you'd rather not make that large of an upfront commitment, you can still greatly help support me by signing up for a yearly or monthly subscription to Nebula as well. Which you can also get for a fantastic deal with 40% off by scanning the QR code or clicking the button here on your screen right now, or by following the link that's down below in the description. Any of which will also get you access to everything on Nebula for the very low price of just $3 per month, or $36 for a full year. I hope that you'll consider signing up, and as always, thank you so much for watching!

ベンガジ大使館襲撃事件を取り上げたこのエピソードは、本質的に暴力的で、物議を醸し、また最近の出来事であるため、YouTubeでは決してうまくいかないだろう。なぜなら、即座にデモネータ処理され、年齢制限をかけられてしまうからだ。私はすでに、YouTubeで非常に多くの私の動画がデミタイズされ、そのまま年齢制限を受けることに対処しており、だからこそ私は『Modern Conflicts』のすべてのエピソードをNebulaに独占的にアップロードしている。Nebulaに登録することが、私と私のチャンネルをサポート