Death toll from Shovi landslide hits 29
Over 800 professionals from the Emergency Management Service and the country’s Defence Forces have been involved in search and rescue efforts in the aftermath. Photo: Ministry of Internal Affairs
Tweet 
Share
Rescuers have recovered the body of the 29th victim of the Shovi resort landslide in Georgia’s west, with four people still missing, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Tuesday.
The Ministry said ongoing search operations involved rescuers, heavy equipment, boats and canine units in locations adjacent to the epicentre of the disaster zone.
The landslide hit cottages and other infrastructure in the resort in the afternoon of August 3, with over 200 people evacuated from the area during subsequent efforts.
Over 800 professionals from the Emergency Management Service and the country’s Defence Forces have been involved in search and rescue efforts in the aftermath.
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.
The National Environmental Agency of Georgia on Saturday said the expected, consequential processes were taking place in the country’s western Shovi resort, following the landslide that killed at least 24 people on August 3 and noted the mentioned processes were “not dangerous at this stage”.
Georgian Infrastructure Minister Irakli Karseladze on Friday said 103 units of heavy hardware were being used in 10 locations for the search and clearing operations in the disaster-affected zone in the western municipality of Oni, where a landslide killed at least 24 last week.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday called the landslide in the Shovi resort of Racha region in western Georgia that claimed at least 18 lives last week a “terrible tragedy” and extended his condolences to the families of the victims.
The landslide in the western Georgian municipality of Oni that killed at least 18 people in the Shovi resort on August 3 was caused by intense melting of glaciers, collapse of rock formations in their headwaters, heavy rains, erosive processes and a glacier runoff, a preliminary report by the National Environmental Agency said on Monday.
The National Environmental Agency of Georgia on Saturday said five natural geological and hydrological processes had converged and led to a landslide in western Georgia’s Shovi resort on Thursday, killing at least 12 people.
Deputy Interior ministers Ioseb Chelidze and Giorgi Butkhuzi, as well as the Head of the Emergency Management Service Temur Mghebrishvili, on Saturday inspected the disaster zone in the western municipality of Oni, after a landslide killed at least 11 in the Shovi resort on Thursday, from the helicopter together with the families of missing persons.
Teams of Georgia’s Red Cross Society on Friday arrived in the Oni municipality of western Georgia to ensure support for rescuers and communities affected by the landslide that hit the Shovi resort on Thursday.
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”.