Nearly three years after a catastrophic storm tore through eastern Libya’s port city of Derna killing almost 4,000 people the city is getting back on its feet, but the trauma persists.

New roads and bridges, thousands of new homes, and a hospital have risen from the rubble since a storm swept the coastal city in 2023, leaving thousands missing and over 40,000 homeless.

Memories from that September disaster remain vivid: apartment blocks ripped open, bodies buried beneath debris, and cars swept into the sea.

But reconstruction provides a glimmer of hope here, where some residents said it helps them cope with the tragedy they lived through.

Asmaa Algzhiri, who lives abroad but comes back to her native city often, said the losses went beyond the death of her aunt and nephews: “Derna is a very close-knit city where everyone is connected. Even your neighbours are family.”

The new parks and playgrounds now scattered across the city “are really important for people’s mental health”.

Adel Bokhsam, a reconstruction official visited construction sites, said a host of projects are currently underway, which he said were about 80 percent completed.

They included 3,500 apartments for displaced families, nine bridges, four crossing the riverbed, with some having been turned into a public promenade, new roads, a desalination plant, new schools, a university and a 600-bed hospital.