Meet the heroes of June 13

Mishka Shakhmaziani was listening to the sound of heavy rain from inside his Svanidze St house in Tbilisi on June 13 - the night that shattered his world.

When the 15-year-old realised it was more than just rain, he grabbed the hands of his mother and aunt and tried to escape from the building. At this moment a huge torrent of water slammed into the trio; Mishka’s grip slipped and the women’s hands slipped from his fingers.

All his attempts to find and save them turned out to be futile.

Realising that his beloved mother and aunt were no longer alive, he rushed to a dog shelter located at the other end of his street to save 60 dogs by opening their cages and leading them to safety.

Shakhmaziani was one of several people who showed amazing courage and bravery on June 13, 2015, when Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi was hit by a deadly flash flood that claimed the lives of 19 people and hundreds of animals. Still, two weeks after the disaster, several people remain missing.

June 13 flood affected the central parts of Tbilisi. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge 

Meanwhile on that fateful night, three employees of Tbilisi State University’s (TSU) Security Service were working at the university’s Hydrometeorology Laboratory in the Vere Gorge. At about 12.15pm Lasha Iobashvili, Ivane Meurmishvili and Ucha Razmadze saw a "mountain together with a river was approaching Svanidze street”. The three men jumped in a car and drove towards the "at risk” street screaming and honking their car’s horns.

Sleeping residents of Svanidze St woke up to the noise and began evacuating their homes. The deluge of water appeared from nowhere and swarmed the area. Second by second the water levels rose. Two of the security guards helped locals walk through waist-high water while the third man helped to illuminate the darkened street with car lights.

The university security staff managed to save many lives but TSU lost two Masters students from the International School of Economics in the flood that night.

Hundreds of cars were swept away by the flooded water on June 13. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Manuchar Injgia, a young man from western Georgia, was staying at his uncle’s in Tbilisi when tooting car horns woke him up. When he got out of the house, he noticed someone attempting to light a lamp from inside one of the flooded houses. Injgia then realised this person was asking for help so he returned into the flooded area.

There he found an elderly woman trapped inside with two young children.

Injgia broke the window and managed to get the three to safety. Four other people from Svanidze St said they were saved by this brave man that tragic night.

Broken window at the flood-affected part of Tbilisi. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

In some areas the water level reached six metres so it took some time for rescuers to arrive. During the rescue efforts officer Zurab Muzashvili died in the flood.

Muzashvili was one of the first rescuers to reach flooded Svanidze St. His fellow rescuer later said Muzashvili died after he saved seven people then returned to the flooded area to search for other survivors.

A flood-affected house at Svanidze St. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Meanwhile at Chikovani St, the Archuashvili family could not leave their flooded house. Rescuers had not reached this street when four members of the family found themselves standing in neck-high water in their living room. The heavy stream was blocking every door and window so the family had no way of escaping.

Fortunately, a fifth member of the family was out with friends that night. When the flood hit he spoke with his family on the phone then immediately returned home – but what he saw looked more like "a horror movie”. His wife, mother, sister, brother and the family dog were locked inside their house that was slowly filling with water.

"When they saw me on the other side of the window, my mom started screaming and asking me to leave the area to save my life,” Archuashvili said, adding "of course, I was not going to leave”.

He found a rope and tied one of his hands to the security bars covering the window to keep balanced by the water rushing past him and with his free hand he used a hammer and started smashing the metal frame.

"I don’t remember how long I was doing this for but eventually four metal bars broke and I managed to drag my mom, wife, sister, brother and the four-legged friend through it,” he said.

Most of the flood-affected people did not manage to save anything from their destroyed houses. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

The following morning Tbilisi was an entirely different city. It was obvious that something major had happened the previous night even without seeing the most affected areas of the city. Tbilisi streets that were normally very noisy were silent; pedestrians who normally walked purposefully along the pavement walked slowly and let others go first and taxi drivers that raised their fares by a Lari or two offered to drive citizens for free.

The city was tacitly mourning.

The following week was an incredible act of solidarity. Thousands of youngsters from Georgia and abroad volunteered to help affected families and clean the city’s mud-drenched streets.

Spades and gloves were in short supply in Georgia's capital after volunteers gathered in the city centre and began to work. Volunteers worked constantly for seven days until the Government announced it was no longer safe to work for fear of spread of disease.

Members of Georgia's National Rugby Team carry the body of a flood victim recovered at Mziuri Park in Tbilisi.

These strong men are members of Georgia’s National Rugby Team. They were seen working alongside students and other volunteers from all over Tbilisi.

Tamar Shedania, winner of Georgia's beauty contest in 2012. 

This beautiful girl carrying a bunch of wood in flood-affected Mziuri Park is Tamar Shedania, Miss Georgia. When this picture went viral on the internet, comments read: "Is this not the most beautiful way of wearing the crown?”

Zaza Pachulia (in the centre), Georgia's top basketball player. 

Zaza Pachulia, a Georgian NBA star, was also among those who joined the volunteers in Tbilisi.

Those who could not physically work found other ways of supporting the volunteers.

A volunteer from Mziuri Park.

This sweet girl wore a huge bag that carried a large battery pack – she offered to charge volunteer’s cellphones. Others provided volunteers with food and water.

Sandwiches for volunteers. 

These sandwiches were made especially for volunteers. Each sandwich was decorated with an individual caption; some stated: "Hey, these muddy boots look so nice on you!”, "I’m so proud of you!” or "You’re so cool!”

Photo credit: Irina Recktenwald.

This letter was written by a 7-year-old to his friend whose family had lost their home in the flood. The letter read: "Nikusha, I’m sending you my moneybox. I had been saving for Disneyland but you continue it now. We can go there together later!”

A number of Tbilisi cafes and restaurants served volunteers for free during the difficult times.

Meanwhile this Facebook post went viral. It contained a mobile number and the caption: "I will make furniture for free for everyone who was affected by the flood.”

High school graduates cancelled their banquets and gave money collected for the ceremony to the flood victims’ support fund.

Meanwhile it was not only Georgian students who supported Tbilisi during the difficult days.

A group of Iraqi students join volunteers to clean Tbilisi. 

This group of young men are Iraqi students who study in Tbilisi. They took spades and cleaned the streets while encouraging the city with a poster saying: "Tbilisi, you are, you were, and you will always be beautiful!”

A human chain during the cleanup works at Mziuri Park. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

During the clean-up works volunteers made a human chain and passed branches and pieces of wood to each other to clean the area faster. If someone noticed a nail in a piece of wood they would warn the next person beside by saying "Watch it! There is a nail in it.” These words would pass along the entire chain until the latest person at the end of it would safely put the wood on the ground.

"This is how everyone took care of each other,” one of the volunteers said.

A taxi driver holds a sign saying: "Free ride for volunteers". 

At the end of each tiring day, this man stood at the entrance of Mziuri Park and held a sign that said: "Free taxi for volunteers”.

Assessing the June 13 disaster, specialists said Tbilisi had not seen such devastating flooding in the past 50 years. But then it has not seen such solidarity either.

See some of the pictures of volunteers from Mziuri Park below. All of the pictures were taken by Nino Alavidze during the first week following the flooding.