Tbilisi Floods 13-14th June 2015 - My view of things as a resident in Tbilisi, Georgia

It has been broadcast on news channels around the world over the last few days, but the scale of what has happened here in Tbilisi has wounded the Georgian people (and the other nationalities living here) more than you can possibly imagine.

Sure, there have been much bigger floods, storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters around the world even in recent years, but when you live in a city like Tbilisi like I do, you really do get a first hand understanding of what a country's culture is about.

Short clip :




Saturday nights storm was not the first we have had in Tbilisi over the last week. The weather was crazy for a week before that with 2 or 3 BIG storms all overnight that I believe contributed to what happened on the 4th storm on the 13th and 14th June (Saturday night / Sunday morning).

The Vere River is honestly normally a shallow stream that barely moves. It runs through a valley with mountains (ok fairly steep hills that are damn hard to walk up if you wanted to) on either side. The river and valley flow into a meandering section that enters the Vake and Saburtalo districts on the West of Tbilisi city. The river then enters the central Mtkvari (or Kura) River (dont ask me why the Mtkvari has 2 names i have no idea).

During heavy rain, the Mtkvari River is normally the one to swell pretty heavily, and I think it was 1-2 years ago while I have been here, there was 1 instance of it breaking its banks on the South-East side of the city. There was some damage caused there, but I think is fair to say it was incomparable to what we saw on Sunday early morning.

From various reliable news sites, tv reports, and from what others have told me as well, the basics of what caused such massive destruction on this occasion started upstream in the Tskneti / Betania / Akhaldaba villages which lie up the Mtatsminda mountain through the valley and on the left side.

The agenda.ge website states this :

After heavy rain and hail, which started around 22:00 on June 13 and continued for several hours, the landslide carrying 1 million cubic meters of land and mud careered down the hillside and into the Vere River valley, near Akhaldaba village, about 20km from the capital Tbilisi.

My personal view is the ground had already been weakened and heavily soaked during the previous 2 or 3 prolonged overnight storms we had during the 5 days before.

They then go on to say :

The mudflow flooded the riverbed, causing a natural dam to form. Soon after the water level quickly rose and the water mass broke the dam, sending a huge torrent of water crashing towards Tbilisi.

This video from the Georgian Ministry of the Environment shows the sequence of events and where it hit the city :



On Sunday morning I woke up to see and hear from people on facebook, the full scale of what had happened. As any Englishman would, I had to go to help, or at least to see if people were ok.

I live only about 10mins walk from the Zoo which was the centre of attention for the news broadcasts, and animal-loving Tbilisians. The warnings about Hippos, Lions, Tigers etc etc loose on the streets were everywhere. The road to Hero Square was blocked for cars by Police by the Holiday Inn hotel, and by the Georgian Public Broadcasters building for people. Not speaking very much Georgian I decided to walk through one of the side-roads to try and help further up the river where the flood had come from. My first sight was opposite Saburtalo/Vake Police Station (luckily it is on a hill), but even then the destruction was clear. Some form of bridge that runs alongside the road has been mangled, with trees, debris, mud and even a car at least 10-20 foot higher than the normal river level hanging from the remains of this bridge. The Fire Service, Army, Police, as well as recovery vehicles, trucks etc etc were already hard at work. I think their main priority was firstly to rescue any people which had become trapped or injured, and also to clear the river path of debris to reduce the risk of further flooding.

I looked around me, and just stood in pure shock for at least 1 hour thinking how the hell are they going to clear this up. I could do nothing really to help, this was a task for some heavy machinery, skilled army and fire services to do anything that would really help. A broom was just not what was needed at that stage!!!

You can see my pictures on My Facebook Album HERE

After I had collected my thoughts I decided the best thing I could do was to continue up the river to where I knew there were some low-lying homes on the side of the river, to see if people there were ok, or needed any help. I walked up the new, but now badly damaged dual carriageway to get there. It took me 20mins to get there passing a partially destroyed Medical Centre, lots of destroyed cars that had been thrown around like toys, and onto the comparatively lower land where people lived. Destroyed homes and peoples belongings just built up as I walked down there, I saw the first home still standing on one meandering corner of the river and met Lali. Lali I would find out later in the day is in her late 60s, has a sister who I also met who lived either with Lali or next door, and I also met the neighbours as well. First thing was to see if she was ok and if she needed anything. She said she was ok (i think.. my georgian not very good), i could see she was still in shock so gestured to her if she needed anything like water or food. She said yes so my task then was totry and find a shop where I could get some!!

I walked for what seemed about an hour upstream towards the main road where I knew there was a petrol station and possibly some shops where I could get some water and food to take back. Fully loaded I headed back to Lali's house. There seemed to be plenty of other people doing a similar thing as me for other people which was so nice to see Georgians doing what they could to help another Georgian!

Khachapuri and water in hand I got back to Lali's home. She tried to explain to me what actually happened, how her garden now is 5-10 metres less now as the river pulled her fruit and vegetable plants away. I saw for myself big cracks across what was even left of the garden to know she has been very fortunate!

While I was there other people came and as I understand some people i think (hope) including Lali and her sister were going to be moved at least temporarily away from the river. After a couple of hours I gave Lali my phone number telling her if she had any problems or needed anything just to call me and say 'Is Lali, i have problem!!' and I will come.

I made my way home, it had been maybe 7 hours I had been out. Hundreds more people were near the Holiday inn where the police had blocked the road access in the morning.

On Monday it was an official Day of Mourning, however we were all back in the office as usual. We broadcast the TV stations to many people in not only Georgia but internationally too, therefore it was very important to keep people updated on the progress of finding people, recovering the animals from the zoo of which some were still loose on the streets somewhere, and coordination of relief efforts with supplies, and the thousands of people who were now helping to clear up after the disaster.

It is now Tuesday 16th June and I can still hear helicopters flying overhead. Slightly surprising maybe as the latest news says the Lions, Tigers etc had all now been accounted for, the only animal they believe may be out there is a Jaguar, but odds would suggest now it has not survived. The only other reason I can think for helicopters still flying at this time (21.40) is some nerves as we did have just a little bit of rain earlier, there was another landslide on the mountain last night which I think volunteers have helped clear from the river, and just people still a bit on edge after what has happened.

If I have time after work in the next few days I will do my best to go down there again to see if I can help for a few hours with anything, and I will also at some point pay another visit to Lali to make sure she is ok.

Im not a religious person really, but I will remember those who died (people AND animals), and put a candle in one of the local churches as well probably at the weekend.

This next video was broadcast last night on Georgian TV and covers everything in more detail, with interviews in Georgian and yet more content of the recovery so far.

Full Documentary of the Tbilisi Flood and Recovery (yes it is in Georgian but the pictures and video speaks for itself) :