Africa

“Our friends and families are all gone,” one man said, as he described the moment his community’s lives changed forever when floodwater swept away families.

Few here still hold out hope of finding anyone alive.

While orderly camps of large, government-issued tents and military field hospitals have sprung up in some larger towns, parts of the region are still surviving on donations left on roadsides by citizens.

"When I came, I found everything — my building, my family, the whole neighborhood — under the sea. Everything disappeared," one man told NBC News.

A precise tally of the rising number of people killed is incredibly difficult to compile given the level of destruction in Derna and the chaotic political situation in the region.

More than 8,000 people have been killed, with thousands more still missing in a disaster compounded by years of civil conflict.

Residents of the High Atlas Mountains are not only reeling from the grief of losing loved ones; they must also now grapple with the practical challenges.

NBC News' Raf Sanchez heard how Ali was celebrating his daughter's 21st birthday when the earthquake struck Amizmiz, Morocco.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and thousands more are missing in the Mediterranean port city of Derna alone.

Some residents have complained that rescue crews didn’t show up for days, leaving families to dig through the rubble themselves by hand.

Thousands are missing and at least 5,300 are confirmed dead after dams collapsed and entire neighborhoods were swept away in the North African country.