Death toll from Shovi landslide hits 28
The Ministry noted that search operations continued with rescuers, heavy equipment, boats and a group of cynologists working in the beds of the Rioni and Chanchakhi rivers and the adjacent territories. Photo via Interior Ministry
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Rescuers have recovered the body of the 28th victim of the Shovi resort fatal landslide in Georgia’s west, with five people still missing, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
The body was found 55 kilometres from the disaster epicentre in the Oni municipality of the Racha region.
The Ministry noted that search operations continued with rescuers, heavy equipment, boats and a group of cynologists working in the beds of the Rioni and Chanchakhi rivers and the adjacent territories.
The landslide hit cottages and other infrastructure in the resort in the afternoon of August 3, with over 800 professionals from the Emergency Management Service and the country’s Defence Forces involved in search and rescue efforts in its aftermath.
Temur Mgebrishvili, the Head of the Emergency Management Service on Sunday said intensive works were actively proceeding in the disaster area in the country’s western Shovi resort, following the landslide that killed at least 24 people on August 3.
Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri on Monday rejected claims by the domestic opposition on “delayed and ineffective” response to the landslide that killed 24 in the western resort location of Shovi on August 3 and said “all survivors” had received necessary help in the aftermath of the disaster.
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.
The Georgian Interior Ministry on Tuesday said rescuers had combed through 90 percent of the area hit by the landslide in the Shovi resort in the country’s west on August 3, with 26 bodies recovered and seven people still missing.
Givi Mikanadze, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said conclusions made “remotely” by the opposition United National Movement party about the landslide that hit the Shovi resort in Georgia’s west and killed at least 29 people showed the party’s “real goals and intentions”.
Those affected by the landslide that hit the western Georgian resort of Shovi earlier this month, and family members of those who died or disappeared during the tragedy, will receive psychological assistance free of charge, the Government Administration said on Wednesday.