Volunteers come out to clean Tbilisi after flooding

Tbilisi has resumed motor traffic in Heroes' Square and on the right-hand embankment of the Kura River. This was made possible thanks to thousands of volunteers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at night on June 14 the capital of Georgia was hit by a heavy downpour, which led to flooding. Several streets of the city were flooded; houses, buildings and infrastructure were destroyed. There is official information about 15 lost persons; more than 30 were injured. According to the Security Council and the Georgian Crisis Management Department, seven persons still remain missing.

In the morning, works were resumed in Tbilisi and surrounding vicinity aimed at liquidating the consequences of the disaster. During the day, they plan to restore traffic in some streets.

According to the Mayoralty, they had to evacuate some 300 people; some of them lost their housing completely, others will be able to return home after rehabilitation works.

The Parliament of Georgia is supposed to allocate one million laris to help the victims and eliminate the consequences of the flooding, said the Speaker David Usupashvili, the Sputnik reports.

Kakha Kaladze, a Vice-Premier, believes that the damage from the flood may reach 100 million laris (about 45 million US dollars).

As reported, the local zoo was flooded; and many animals, including predators, ran into city streets. At least 300 out of the 600 animals were lost; today, the Georgian authorities reported that all the remaining animals had been caught.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.