Tag Archives: emergency

Zoo re-opens in Georgian capital

SEPT. 12 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — The city’s zoo has re-opened three months after a flood hit it killing 19 people and an estimated 277 animals.

Pictures of dead lions and tigers and of a hippo wandering through central Tbilisi flashed around the world on the morning of June 14 after the flood tore into the zoo. A quarter of its animals were killed in the flood.

The zoo has re-opened on its original site but will move to a new premise on the outskirts of the city later in the year, the zoo’s director Zurab Gurielidze said.

He also said European zoos had agreed to give 150 animals to the zoo.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Georgians find tiger’s body

JULY 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The body of the final animal missing from Tbilisi Zoo after a flood swept into it in June has been found in central Tbilisi, media reported. Salima was an Ussuri tiger. Last year she gave birth to three cubs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Georgia investigates the cause of flood

JUNE 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Georgia’s government launched an investigation into the causes of a flood this month that killed at least 20 people, injured dozens more, flooded the city’s zoo and destroyed hundreds of buildings.

Local pressure groups, though, criticised the authorities for their slow response to the worst natural disaster to hit Tbilisi in living memory. This criticism could sting the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and damage their already fragile public support.

Nick Davitashvili, from the environmental activist group Guerilla Gardening Tbilisi, said: “The response by the government left a lot to be desired. Volunteers had to take on part of the relief efforts.”

Muddy, destroyed cars still lay around Heroes Square in the centre of the city more than week after the flood on June 14.

Immediately after the flood, thousands of volunteers shovelled mud and donated clothes and medicine to tho. The government, though, has now said that volunteers’ role is over.

“The risks are increasing and we are worried about the young people,” PM Irakli Garibahsvili said.

The ministry of environment has said that it is looking into setting up an early warning system for future disasters but the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network, the country’s largest environmental NGO said that this was an attempt to deflect responsibility for the flood.

“No disaster threat analysis, or preventive measures, have been conducted in Tbilisi for 15 years,” it said in a statement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)

River floods, kills 19 people and destroys zoo in Georgia

JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -At least 19 people died after flash floods hit Tbilisi, smashing into houses, ripping up road and destroying city’s zoo

Torrential rain turned a small creek that runs through the city into a wild, uncontrollable river. It burst its banks and swept along recently paved and concreted areas into residential parts of Tbilisi.

Several animals escaped the flooded zoo, including lions, tigers, bears and panthers but dozens others died. A cornered tiger reportedly attacked and killed a man in a flooded warehouse on June 17. Police later shot dead the tiger.

The authorities ordered people to stay inside until they had re-captured all the animals. Video showed a hippo roaming through central Tbilisi before being hit with a tranquilliser dart and brought under control.

The carcasses of dead lions, bears and deer floated through flooded streets, past smashed cars caked with mud and houses missing walls.

This was one of the worst natural disaster to hit Tbilisi in living memory.

PM Irakli Garibashvili said around 200 people lost their homes and that the cost of repairing the city would be around 50m euro.

But the damage to Georgia’s prestige may be worse. People were quick to portion blame for the floods, many saying poor construction work had destroyed the river’s run-off area.

Nana Janashia, director of the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), also said the non-existence of an emergency plan was also a problem.

“This was absolutely predictable and is the result of high rain precipitation, human impact and poor infrastructures dating back to Soviet times,” she said.

Others blamed former president Mikheil Saakashvili who initiated the construction of the new highway. In a 2009 article, the magazine Liberali said the construction of the highway could lead to potential disastrous floods.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Floods hit central Kazakhstan

APRIL 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A rise in snowmelt, triggered by an increase in temperatures, has caused rivers to burst their banks, media reported. The Karaganda oblast’s emergency department said nearly 2,000 homes had been flooded.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 227, published on April 15 2015)

Mud slides in Tajikistan kill 10 people

APRIL 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Mudslides in Tajikistan have killed at least 10 people, media reported. The mudslides highlight the often poor state of infrastructure in Tajikistan.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Small earthquake hits Armenia

APRIL 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale shook northern Armenia. There were no causalities but the earthquake was recorded in Yerevan with a strength of 2 to 3 on the Richter Scale.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)

Three Kazakhs die in German air crash

MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Three Kazakhs and a Ukrainian opera singer born in Kazakhstan died in the Germanwings plane crash, the Kazakh foreign ministry said. The plane, carrying 150 people, crashed in the French Alps (March 24). It was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)

Bedymukhamedov to fly to Japan

MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Underlining his credentials as a far more outward looking leader than his predecessor, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said he would travel to Japan for a UN conference on disaster reduction. He’ll likely make time to meet with Japanese officials to improve relations too.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Azerbaijan to increase grain reserves

JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has said that it will increase by 50% the size of its grain reserves, media reported. Azerbaijan wants to hedge against grain harvest fluctuations by increasing its stored supply to 750,000 tonnes from 500,000 tonnes. Its intervention will push up grain prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)