The tragedy of TbilisiIn June of 2015, in a small city of a small country, river “Vere” overflowed. and this small country is our country – Georgia.

In Georgia, disasters are rare, but they obviously cause various damages and problems.

It was 5 years ago, but we still remember everything from this day.

13th June in Tbilisi - the pouring rain caused the landslip. The plucked ground blocked the river-bed of the river “Vere”. The water was damming. Soon it found the way to flow end enormous amount of water started to flow straight to the center of Tbilisi. And the flood destroyed everything on its way.

World media anchor has compared floods in Tbilisi to apocalypse.

Rain in May and June is common occurrence in Tbilisi, but the rain on the night of june 13 was noticeably heavy.

Near to river Vere is Svanidze street, where up to 50 families live. On the same street, there is hydrometeorological lab of Tbilisi state university, which has been observing the river for more than 50 years. Vere is 70 meters from the lab in a 350-meter-long tunnel . this tunnel was built in 1958. Two years after the tunnel was built, Svanidze street was flooded, and gorge monitoring system created. The system has been abolished for the past 25 years and facility was left without notice. The length of the gorge is approximately 40 kilometers. At first glance, Vere is a harmless river, that can be crossed without getting wet, though it grows in spring with heavy rains.

On June 4, water consumption was 155 cubic meters.

The sediment In Vere gorge was incredibly high. In 4 hours, From 08:30 pm, 35% of annual rate came in Tbilisi. In addition, strong processes have begun in the gorge in recent years, From September 2014 until March 2015, the sediment did not came, that caused crumbling rocks to accumulate in the gorge.

On the June 13, due to the overnight rain, the water consumption in the Vere river reached 450 cubic meters per second. Such amount of water was never recorded in the Vere river…

Near the river, there was a Tbilisi Zoo and a dog shelter. The disaster almost completely destroyed the Tbilisi zoo, many of the animals died in floods. there were 5 lions, 6 tigers, 7 bears and 13 wolves in the streets of Tbilisi, cameras also spotted some other animals, such as hippos. One of the bears jumped on the air conditioner to save itself.

About 100 dogs died along with these animals.

The disaster started late on June 13 and continued until the morning of june 14.

It’s noteworthy that the river “Mtkvari” also flowed from the bed. The disaster claimed the lives of 19 (or more) people, lost 6 people and left more than 200 homeless. Among the dead were three zoo staff and rescuers. By the evening of June 15, according to zoo staff and it’s director, there were no more prey animals in the streets of Tbilisi, some of them were asleep and then returned back to the zoo, and some of them were liquidated on the spot.

On June 17, a tiger hiding in one of the warehouses claimed the life of one of the four employees, while others managed to escape. As a result of two hour special operation, the tiger was eliminated.

Houses filled with waters, residents sheltered the roofs to save themselves, they tried their best to save themselves, their family, and others but, unfortunately, most of them died. Rescuers and the police arrived to help the population, but the residents tried hard to help each other. Instead of everyone helping themselves, they took care of each other. That’s in the blood of Georgian people.

In short, Everything destroyed. People were dying, children were dying, animals were dying…

June 13 is a day of mourning for Georgians, for all of us.

I’ll never forget the day, when people were drowning, and I couldn’t do anything

but watch them in TV and cry, feeling their emotions, I felt like I was there, I could

feel their pain, I wanted to do something, I wanted to help them, but I couldn’t do

anything, it was the worst feeling ever, I just can not describe it with words…

The flooding of river vere frightened me, and since then I’ve been interested and

researching why

and how, not only floods but other disasters occur. What to do in such situations

and etc.

After everything, we, Georgians united and started helping our land. there were

womens, mens, teenagers, childrens, there were all of them. It was hard to see your

homeland in situation like that, so we tried everything to save it.

The flooding river “Vere” put thousands of young people side by side five years ago.

Despite the heavy and dangerous work, initially they chaotically, recklessly

attacked the effects of disaster.

Young people who worked in disaster zone said that the june 13 disaster is the best

example of the state and civil society standing together.

On the night of june13, videos circulated through social media gathered scores of

people. From the next day, their unanimity became a real civil movement.

Armed with bare hands, then armed with shovels and gloves, we began cleaning

the flooded, dirt-covered areas. In those days in the streets of Tbilisi, you would

often meet mud-laden youths on their knees.

If some of the citizens worked physically in the disaster zone, the other part

supplied them with food and water.

Today we have thoroughly studied all types of risks in the “Vere” river, both

geological and hydrological hazards. In the river we have a monitoring system we

use for early alerts.

Also, very soon gravel-type walls were built in the “vere” valley that would prevent

the deposition of sedimentary material into the tunnels.

As we say: POWER IS IN UNITY.

WRITER: Elisabeth khozrevanidze

Group: Hazardous girls.

Teacher: Inga sharadze.

Group members: Mariam kakhidze, Elene Jokhadze, Lizi abashidze, Elisabeth khozrevanidze.