Interior Minister expresses “deep sorrow” to Shovi landslide victims' families, says “maximum done in shortest possible time” in disaster relief efforts

Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri on Sunday arrived in the disaster-affected zone in the western municipality of Oni, where a landslide killed at least 24 on August 3 and expressed his “deepest sorrow” to the families of the deceased, noting relevant units “have done their best in the shortest possible time” in disaster relief efforts.

Photo via Interior Ministry

He inspected the disaster zone from a helicopter and got acquainted with the ongoing operations, and held a working meeting at the field headquarters, where he was briefed about the current situation. Gomelauri also met rescuers and families of the victims of the disaster and missing persons.

Photo via Interior Ministry

In his comments to the media, Gomelauri said the Emergency Management Service, the local police and the Defence Ministry, as well as the aviation, “have been involved in the search and rescue operations from the very first hours” on the instructions of the Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

He emphasised that 60 percent of the landslide area had been searched, with 24 bodies recovered so far, and added it would take “a few more days” to search the entire landslide-affected area.

Answering the questions of the journalists, the Minister said the helicopters had arrived at the site “in about three hours” and explained that preparation time was required before flying, adding the helicopters could not operate at disaster night “due to the risks”, including “very bad weather”.

The helicopter arrived, they worked and took 70 people to a safe place, [...] at night, [and] since there was a danger, [the helicopters] did not risk flying and brought out the rest of the people the next day”, he noted, adding the difficult terrain was one of the reasons why the helicopters could not operate at night.

Photo via Interior Ministry

Gomelauri said all of the helicopters were “fully operational” and pointed out that the country had purchased three new ones from France and the first helicopter would arrive in Georgia in March 2024, adding pilots would be trained accordingly to operate them.

Natural disasters, like landslides, can happen “everywhere” and “unfortunately cannot be avoided”, Gomelauri stressed and noted that even “much stronger” countries than Georgia, which “have far better helicopters and aviation” could not avoid natural disasters, citing recent wildfires on the Hawaiian island, which killed over 100.

Photo via Interior Ministry

He also said that the Shovi disaster incident was being investigated and the Prosecutor’s office was working on it.

The Minister also slammed the domestic opposition for spreading misinformation, “although everyone knew the reason” why he was not able to be at the site of the disaster at that time, explaining that he had a family emergency.