Cartu Bank donates 2.5 million GEL for Tbilisi flood victims

A bank in Georgia owned by Georgia’s former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has donated more than 2 million GEL to a fund that will support victims of the Tbilisi flash flood.

Cartu Bank donated 2.5 million GEL to help people affected by the June 13 disaster, which claimed the lives of 19 people and completely destroyed Tbilisi Zoo. Twelve days on from the disaster three people remain missing.

A representative of Cartu Bank said this money was not connected to an earlier statement by billionaire tycoon Ivanishvili, who stated that he would cover the shortfall if not enough funds were raised to cover the cost of the damage.

Meanwhile people all over the world have donated to several funds that will help Georgia’s capital city recover from the devastating flash flood.

Members of the global public, businesses and the international official community have offered assistance to Georgia. The European Union (EU) expressed its full solidarity to the country and said it was ready to deploy assistance to help Georgia recover from the disaster.

The Georgian Government allocated 10 million GEL from the state budget to Tbilisi City Hall to combat the damage. Additionally, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili promised every family who had lost a loved one would receive 10,000 GEL (about 4,500 USD) financial aid from the state.