Central Georgia’s resort town Borjomi hit by heavy rain
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Life in Borjomi, central Georgia’s resort town that’s famous for its mineral waters, is returning to normal for residents and guests after a chaotic 24 hours of heavy rain, hail, flooding and widespread power cuts.
Experts are today calculating the cost of the damage but the effects of last night’s rain are clear; town roads flooded, homes were flooded and heavy rain caused landslides that carried debris onto several main roads in the region.
The heavy rain, which continuously fell for about 30 minutes, caused flooding in the lower levels of many homes and destroyed the historical central park of Borjomi, which is the location of the main source of Borjomi mineral water that the public can drink.
Heavy rain and strong wind caused trees and other debris to block roads in Borjomi. Photo by Goga Chanadiri/Facebook.
About 50 staff of the Forestry Department are currently clearing the park after several hundred-year-old trees toppled over.
As the rain fell last night locals and tourists were evacuated from the small town but have since been returned to the area.
Emergency workers worked throughout the night to clear blocked roads and as of this morning, the central roads leading into and out of Borjomi are open to traffic.
Several roads in the area were covered in debris and needed to be cleaned. Photo by Goga Chanadiri/Facebook.
At this stage the main highway is open. Serious problems were created in the historical park but tourists were evacuated in time. All services – rescuers, fire fighters and police – are in place,” said Borjomi Governor Dimitri Kipiani.
Recovery work was still underway in the central park, and this space was due to reopen this afternoon.
Last night’s heavy rain also damaged several electricity transmission lines, leaving more than 6,000 families without power overnight.
Power Ñompany Energo-pro Georgia worked throughout the night to fix the power lines and restore power to the affected people. Power has been returned to 5,000 families and about 1,000 families are still without electricity.
The power company said the remaining families that were still without power would be reconnected before the end of today.
The National Environmental Agency forecast unstable weather would continue in Georgia until August 10. In the coming days brief thunderstorms were expected in western Georgia and hail storms in eastern Georgia.
The Agency said air temperatures would drop to around 27-29 degrees in coastal areas and to 30-32 degrees in Samegrelo-Zemo Savaneti and Imereti regions.
Maximum temperatures in eastern Georgia were forecast to reach 34-36 degrees. Deterioration of the weather was expected in the evening and night hours, said the Agency.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has travelled to western Georgia where heavy rains have caused major damage to roads and other infrastructure.
The Georgian Government is taking measures to assist people affected by the heavy rain in the western parts of Georgia.
Streets and homes in Georgia's Black Sea coastal town Batumi in the west are flooded following hours of heavy rain since early this morning.
Heavy downpour yesterday seriously damaged several villages in Georgia’s western, coastal Adjara region, but no victims are reported.
Today marks exactly one year 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. Twenty-one people lost their lives in the flood on the evening of June 13, 2015. The bodies of two of these victims have still not been found.
The central streets of Georgia’s seaside town Batumi are full of water; flats are flooded and debris from landslides hit several roads in the region – the result of last night’s heavy rainfall that fell for two hours straight.
Recent bad weather has badly affected several regions of Georgia so that the experts are now evaluating the damage caused by the intensive downpour and precise figures will be known shortly.