Caucasus is in a disaster zone

In the last few days the Caucasus has been covered in all kinds of weather: snow, blizzards and gales which have seriously complicated the life of the inhabitants of the region.

There is an especially severe situation in Georgia. Starting from January 6 the interior ministry stopped vehicle traffic between Georgia and the Russian Federation because of heavy snowfall on the Georgian Military Highway in Kobe Gudauri district and through the Dariali border checkpoint, while Russia's Upper Lars border checkpoint is closed. Traffic has not been restored so far. The snow depth exceeds 2 meters in the area of the mountain resort of Gudauri in Kazbegi region. In the nearby villages it is about 1.7 meters. Drivers waiting for roads to open are being provided with free food, water and outdoor heating items. Most people stuck in snowdrifts are temporarily placed in the homes of local residents and hotels, some prefer not to leave their cars.

Other Georgian road traffic has also been affected. In particular, on January 7 Georgian police had to free 200 people caught up in a snowdrift on the main highway in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti.

"Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs along with rescue teams brought 200 people from the emergency area. They were temporarily placed in the homes of local police officers," News-Georgia cites the head of the press service of the ministry of internal affairs of Georgia, Nino Giorgobiani.

This bad weather has increased the risk of landslides. In particular, one recent landslide has paralyzed traffic in the Keda district of Adjara on the 30th kilometer of the Batumi-Akhaltsikhe highway. However, the consequences of the landslide were quickly cleared up.

"At the moment (22:40 MSK January 8 - VK) traffic has been restored in a unilateral direction. Clearing of the road continues to progress, and soon traffic will be opened in both directions," Interfax quotes the head of the administration of Keda municipality David Dumbadze.

Azerbaijan is also experiencing difficulties due to bad weather. In particular, the traffic police of Baku have recently warned drivers of heavy ice on the roads of the capital.

The North Caucasus is seriously affected by the bad weather this winter as well. Power lines broke twice in Karachay-Cherkessia due to snow build-up: On January 7 in the village of Arhiz in the Zelenchuksky district, 1.5 thousand people were left without electricity, on January 8 in the resort village of Dombay about 5 thousand people's electricity was cut off.

Today in Krasnodar Territory in Anapa, 11 nine-storey houses with about 1.5 thousand people were left without heat because of a break in the heating duct. The air temperature in the city at the moment is -7 Celcius.

And this storm is not going to retreat: a high level of avalanche danger will remain in the republics of the North Caucasus at least until tonight. The Russian emergency situations ministry recommends residents of the region to be especially careful.