Authorities have been assessing the damage and working to mitigate the “serious” impact in Telavi, the central city in Georgia’s eastern Kakheti region, after the local Telaviskhevi river overflowed following heavy rain during the early hours of July 12, flooding streets and residential areas. No casualties or injuries have been reported.
Videos shared by locals show the swollen and muddy river flowing through streets beyond its banks, flooding nearby streets and neighborhoods. The images and footage from the area also show flooded businesses and the basements and ground floors of apartment buildings.
“The disaster is indeed of an unprecedented scale,” Irakli Kadagishvili, a ruling Georgian Dream lawmaker who arrived at the scene, told TV Pirveli. “The city infrastructure has been very seriously damaged.”
Authorities have convened a disaster response group to assess the damage and coordinate the response, while pledging to carry out flood prevention works to reduce the risk of similar disasters in the future. Local officials have also reported electricity and natural gas outages. Authorities said around a hundred pieces of equipment have been deployed to handle the effects.
Revaz Sokhadze, Georgian Dream infrastructure minister, pledged that authorities “will do everything to eliminate the effects of the disaster as quickly as possible, while simultaneously planning preventive measures to help reduce similar risks in the future.”
Locals have reported horrifying roars and sights during the flood.
“I have lived here for so many years and never seen anything like this,” a local woman told TV Pirveli. The river “carried torn trees, soil, stones, it was terrible.”
The disaster has sparked questions and criticism over whether it could have been prevented, with critics circulating a 2020 report by Formula TV in which hydrologists from the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN) warned that Telavi residents were “living on a mine” unless issues with special debris-control dams, built after a similar disaster in 1977 and intended to protect the city from flooding, were addressed.
They also pointed to risks associated with the narrowing of the riverbed closer to the city and the construction of businesses along the riverbed in Telavi.
Officials, however, dismissed the criticism, with Infrastructure Minister Revaz Sokhadze arguing that “natural disasters happen in every country” and accusing critics of “taking advantage” of the disaster. Sokhadze said the dams were last renovated in 2022 and “fulfilled their function” during the disaster, but promised to have “an adequate” response if there are any illegal or risky constructions near the river.
Commenting on the matter, GD MP Irakli Kadagishvili suggested that a small bridge over the Telaviskhevi River had obstructed the flow and caused the flooding, adding that the riverbed needed to be “completely redesigned.”
Also Read:
