"Nineteen members of one family

and that is just one family." 

My friend Z.... is in Libya. He got called late in the evening. They picked him just before midnight from his home in Belgium and flew him out to look at the disaster the collapse of the dams had wrought. He is an hydraulic engineer on a massive scale. He should be retired, long since retired. He is still being called on to look. 

The colleague who called him was just overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster there. He had apparently been warning the authorities for years that there could be a disaster. They took no notice and now that disaster has occurred. They were apparently too busy fighting to gain power. They had no time to bother themselves with such basic, everyday needs as water supply.

Z.... has seen more than a few disasters in his lifetime. He has been in some very dangerous situations. His wife M... told me, "He should be home with his feet up at least at weekends. Instead of that I am worrying about his safety again."

And then Z... sent a message asking me to see if I could contact someone. He couldn't get hold of them directly. "I am sitting here next to S.... He is trying to do what he can but he has lost nineteen members of his family." He doesn't need to tell me that the poor man is in a state of shock. There are stories like that coming in from other people as well, eleven members of one family here and sixteen of another there, new born twins and their mother, a teenage boy trying to keep his younger siblings together after the death of both parents and so much more.

I made some calls. The person he wants is on holiday and quite possibly has not seen the news I am told. Where is he working? Right. I make another call. Yes, he is on holiday. There is an emergency contact for him. Do we really need him? Yes I say and explain the situation again. The person at the other end makes a call to someone who contacts someone in authority there. A message goes out. Contact is made after some hours. The holiday is over. He is at the small airport in that country by the time they let me know. They are flying him out free of charge to help. He is leaving his family behind on holiday. His company has told him that it will be considered "work" time while he is there, not holiday time. I am glad he is not giving up holiday time because he still has a young family. He would have gone anyway because he was born in Libya. 

It is one tiny, tiny thing being done in a disaster which is hard to comprehend. The last estimate I have been given is too high to contemplate. So much of it was unnecessary. If money had been spent on building dams properly instead of fighting this would not have occurred.  I feel emotionally exhausted. Why can't people simply get along with each other? Is is that damn hard?