DERNA, Libya: Aid groups warned of the growing risk posed by the spread of disease that could compound the humanitarian crisis in Libya, as hopes dwindled on Saturday of finding more survivors days AFTER DEADLY flOODING.

Last Sunday’s flood submerged the port city of Derna, washing thousands of people and homes out to sea after two upstream dams burst under the pressure of torrential rains triggered by hurricane-like Storm “Daniel.”

Conflicting death tolls have been reported, with officials in the east of the divided North African country giving different estimates, and one speaking of at least 3,840 dead.

In Al-Bayda, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Derna, locals have begun cleanup efforts, working to clear roads and homes of the mounds of mud left behind by the deluge.

Aid organizations like Islamic Relief and Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, have warned that the upcoming period could see the spread of disease, as well as grave difficulties in delivering aid to those most in need.

Islamic Relief warned of a “second humanitarian crisis” after the flood, pointing to the “growing risk of waterborne diseases and shortages of food, shelter and medicine.”

“Thousands of people don’t have anywhere to sleep and don’t have food,” said Salah Aboulgasem, the organization’s deputy director of partner development.

“In conditions like this, diseases can quickly spread as water systems are contaminated,” he added. “The city smells like death.

Almost everyone has lost someone they know.”

The MSF said it was deploying teams to the east to assess water and sanitation.

“With this type of event we can really worry about water-related disease,” said Manoelle Carton, the MSF’s medical coordinator in Derna, who described efforts to coordinate aid as “chaotic.”

But the Red Cross and the World Health Organization pointed out that, contrary to widespread belief, the bodies of victims of natural disasters rarely pose a health threat.

An Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist in Derna said central neighborhoods on either side of the river, which normally dries up at this time of year, looked as if a steam roller had passed through, uprooting trees and buildings and hurling vehicles onto the port’s breakwaters.

Ahmed al-Mesmari, the spokesman for the east-based Libyan National Army, said on Friday night the flood had affected “over 1.2 million people.”

“Everything was washed away ... The waters have completely cut off the roads in these regions,” he added.

Stephanie Williams, a United States diplomat and former United Nations envoy to Libya, posted on social media urging global mobilization to coordinate aid efforts in the wake of the flood.

She warned of the “predilection of Libya’s predatory ruling class to use the pretext of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘national ownership’ to steer such a process on their own and in a self-interested manner.”

The UN has appealed for more than $71 million to assist hundreds of thousands in need, warning that the “extent of the problem” remains unclear.

“We don’t know the extent of the problem,” UN Emergency Chief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said in the western Swiss city of Geneva on Friday, as he called for coordination between Libya’s two rival administrations — the UNbacked, internationally recognized government in Tripoli, and one based in the disaster-hit east.

But the scale of the devastation gave way to shows of solidarity, as volunteers in the Libyan capital gathered aid for the flood victims in the east.

“Everyone in Tripoli is mobilized, and they’re bringing us goods. Tomorrow, we hope that aid will be sent to Derna,” said volunteer Mohamed Omar Benour. “We hope everything goes well, and may God help everyone.”

Teams from the Libyan Red Crescent were “still searching for possible survivors and clearing bodies from the rubble in the most damaged areas” of Derna, its spokesman Tawfik Shoukri told AFP on Friday.

Other teams were trying to deliver much-needed aid to families in the eastern part of the city, which had been spared the worst of the flooding but was cut off by road, he added.

The International Organization for Migration, meanwhile, said “over 38,640” people had been left homeless in eastern Libya, 30,000 of them in Derna alone.