A Tauranga couple living in Georgia were shocked to see the devastation caused by a flood which killed at least 12 and destroyed a zoo leaving tigers, lions and a hippopotamus among the animals roaming free in the country's capital.
Former Bay of Plenty Times reporter Genevieve Helliwell (27) and fiance Richard Saunders (31), having been living and working in Tbilisi for two years. Miss Helliwell said they were camping at a national park in Borjomi, about two hours west of Tbilisi, for the weekend when she received a message from a friend saying animals had escaped from the zoo.
"I was with a group of about seven people and initially we thought it was a joke then more people started contacting us telling us the news. The zoo and disaster zone are in a very populated area. Several of our friends live very close to the area and it is also a main driving route so we were all quite keen to get home and see the situation for ourselves," she told the Bay of Plenty Times from Tbilisi.
"We arrived back about 5pm and the traffic was chaos as police had closed the roads. The detour went straight past where the bank collapsed and the flood originated and as we drove past we saw dozens of people standing on the sidewalk holding plastic bags of their only belongings, and they're all covered in mud. Many are now homeless."
A lot of the flood water had receded and had left mud and sediment in its place. Cars parked on the side of the road had water marks up to their roofs, she said.
Heavy rains and wind hit Tbilisi overnight on Saturday, turning a normally small stream that runs through the hilly city into a surging river.
"It all started with heavy rain and a landslide in a village called Akhaldaba, about 10km away from the city. That caused the Vere river to damn up from the landslide, then this burst sending a huge torrent of water rushing towards the city," Miss Helliwell said.
The flood destroyed the zoo, leaving officials to warn residents to stay indoors as they rounded up the animals.
An escaped hippo was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquiliser gun, the zoo said. Some other animals also had been seized, but it remained unclear how many were on the loose. Bears and wolves were also among the animals that fled from their enclosures amid the flooding.
Miss Helliwell said one lion was shot relatively close to her house in front of the Marjanishvili Theatre. "Obviously human safety is the main concern, but it's a huge shame to kill such beautiful animals," she said.
The people worst hit by the flooding were those with the least who already struggled to survive, she said. "Near the disaster area was a very poor area where people lived in very basic shacks ... These people's homes, possessions would have been washed away. It's gut-wrenching."
Hundreds of people had volunteered to help and were out clean up the roads and clear debris, she said. The Government declared Monday (local time) a day of mourning for the 12 dead and dozens missing. Damage was estimated to be US$18 million ($25.8 million).
- Amy Wiggins of the Bay of Plenty Times
