Snowstorm Hits Western Georgia, Authorities Blamed for Botched Emergency Response

Since February 20, heavy snowfall has stranded several villages in the high mountains of western Georgia, particularly its Guria region, leaving them without gas, electricity, and water. Government agencies issued severe weather warnings last Friday, February 21, but failed to mobilize to provide emergency help.

Five days into the emergency, the GD government decreed in the afternoon of February 25 to mobilize the army to manage the situation. Local government officials have said they are doing their best to help people who remain cut off.

In some villages, roofs have collapsed under the weight of the snow, which, in some areas, reportedly exceeded two meters. In many places, snow-covered roads are blocked by fallen trees, blocking passage to emergency vehicles and ambulances.

Outrage as the botched response costs lives

Since the snowstorm started, social media has been overflowing with calls for help, as elderly people were cut off without subsistence and roofs reportedly caved in under heavy snow. Several people reportedly died.

According to media reports, a middle-aged man helping his elderly neighbor to de-snow the roof died in Konchkati village in Guria after the roof collapsed.

Today, February 25, a woman was reported dead in the village of Japareuli, Guria, according to local media, due to diabetic shock as she was unable to procure insulin. The woman had been caring for her elderly mother, who is now left alone in the house, with neighbors unable to reach her due to heavy snow.

“The village head told us to have no hope, that there are no tractors, that we are cut off from the world… Now my 80-year-old father is clearing the road of up to one and a half meters of snow,” Irma Khomeriki from the village of Ormeti in Guria wrote on social media yesterday afternoon.

“We are waiting for rescue… I am drowning in the snow, trapped for two days,” Ana Beridze wrote on social media today, February 25, saying she cannot leave her home and needs food.

“My neighbor’s house has collapsed,” Nunuchia Tsuladze writes on Facebook from the village of Shemokmedi, Guria, saying the incident caused no casualties.

Political reactions

Many Georgians who have been protesting for almost three months now say the GD government and the Ministry of Interior, responsible for emergency response, are so focused on repression that they neglect citizens.

This sentiment was expressed by Salome Zurabishvili, who wrote on her social media, “Nobody cares for the state. Georgia has no state. All the means at the government’s disposal are shifted to repression, while citizens only get warnings by emergency services to show vigilance.”

Opposition politicians also criticized the government. “The state does nothing in the disaster zone; the system is paralyzed,” wrote Mamuka Khazaradze, leader of the Strong Georgia coalition, on social media, adding that this leaves people relying on one another. “This is why this criminal, impotent Russian government must change,” he said.

“The state is avoiding responsibility for the safety of citizens, which is its direct duty,” said Teona Akubardia of the Gakharia for Georgia party.

Meanwhile, Shalva Papuashvili, the GD parliament speaker, claims that the state is “fully mobilized” to clear the roads of snow and provide citizens with basic necessities. “The state is taking all necessary measures both for prevention and elimination of damage that we have in such cases,” he said.

“The state is doing everything [even] beyond its capacity to reach every individual and every family and to alleviate the problems caused by the disaster. The maximum is being done,” Mamuka Mdinaradze, the GD parliamentary majority leader, said. Mdinaradze also claimed that “speculation” continues on the issue, alleging that “excessive panic” is being stirred in society.

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