Two months on from deadly Tbilisi flood
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Exactly two months have passed since Georgia’s capital Tbilisi was hit by a deadly flash flood, which turned out to be the city’s worst human and infrastructural disaster in years.
See the city centre before and after the disaster.
Twenty-two people lost their lives in the flood on the evening of June 13, 2015. The bodies of three of these victims have still not been found.
About 400 people from up to 80 families lost everything they owned and were offered temporarily housing in hotels and rented flats.
On a wider scale, an initial evaluation estimated flood damage on Tbilisi infrastructure exceeded 100 million GEL. Roads linking Tbilisi and several nearby villages and summer settlements still remain blocked.
Tbilisi City Hall will not restore the destroyed roads but will build new ones in different locations. The reason for this was because it was much cheaper to build new roads than fix the damaged ones.
Today the Interagency Commission gathered at Tskneti-Betania Rd to discuss the actions planned to help the flood affected families.
About 400 people from up to 80 families lost everything they owned as a result of Tbilisi flood. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge
"Our business is to provide to [flood affected families] social assistance through cooperation with the Tbilisi City Hall,” said Minister of Health Care Davit Sergeenko after the two hour meeting.
In this regard Tbilisi City Hall has already made some activities such as compensating the place of residence. The Mayor has already introduced the report about how many families got the compensation. This process still continues and we monitor the processes,” he said.
Georgia’s Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri added the Ministry continued negotiating with donor organisations to attract finances for flood affected families and to fund the rehabilitation costs of fixing damaged infrastructure.
"We have been cooperating with donor organisations since the Tbilisi flood. Several accounts were opened specifically to assist flood affected families where people donate money,” he said.
As of today 2.7 million GEL is available in the state treasury account. This money has not been transferred to the Tbilisi budget yet. At this moment we are still negotiating with several donor organisations to attract money for infrastructural development such as fixing the roads and more.”
A man sitting in his damaged house, hit by the deadly flood on June 13. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge
Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania said several areas remained at risk of future natural disasters in Tbilisi, including heavily-hit Svanidze St.
As of today no one lives in dangerous areas. All residents will benefit from alternative places of residence. It means if such a disaster happens again there is no danger to potential victims. These territories will be announced as the zones where construction works will be strictly forbidden,” Narmania said.
The Tskneti-Betania Rd will not be recovered as the cost to renovate it was "too expensive”. Meanwhile only one part of the New Highway (Chabua Amirejibi Highway) will be fixed by September 2015.