Batumi flooded

On Monday evening Batumi City Hall cancelled a state of emergency mode and "high degree of risk" on the coast. But the severe storm, which began on Sunday morning, continues. Residents and guests of Batumi are still afraid of approaching the shore. It is also forbidden to swim in the sea. 

The storm started unexpectedly. The sky suddenly turned dark and a strong wind began to blow. There were a lot of people on Batumi beach. It is peak tourist season and there were a lot of foreign guests. Employees and rescue services put to sea on patrol boats and warned people about the danger with the help of megaphones. But many people failed to swim back on their own, and they were pulled in by experienced swimmers. 16 people were saved, including foreigners who did not expect anything like this in such a beautiful resort town. There were no victims, but huge damage was caused to the infrastructure of Batumi. The heavy rain not only washed away most of the coastal infrastructure, including the famous new boulevard, which was ex-president Saakashvili’s pride. The storm also damaged pillars of power lines, blew decorative benches into the sea and destroyed the water park and playgrounds.

The Swamp quarter particularly suffered, where the main urban curse of post-Soviet Georgia, in almost all of its cities, including Tbilisi, occurred once again – the weak capacity of water collecting systems. Again they cannot cope with the flow of water and prevent flooding of basements, yards and ground floors, pedestrian zones, as well as parks and other city facilities. But the most popular restaurants, cafes and bars are located on the ground floors of buildings. Employees of the municipal services used special equipment in the streets.

Mikheil Saakashvili declared Batumi to be an emblematic construction site at the time of his presidency and even considered the issue of "ecological restructuring" of the region. It was proposed reducing the height of Mount Mtirala (Crying Mountain) looming over Batumi in order that storm fronts could pass over it instead of accumulating in the mountain and flowing into the resort town, which is why the mountain is called ‘Crying’.

We can only sympathize with the tourists, although storms and tropical downpours are common weather for Adjara. There have been no such hurricanes here for ten years, but heavy rains and wind storms often take place in Batumi in summer at the height of the season.

But Saakashvili did not dare to implement this adventurous step, because experts could not guarantee the result of the project, despite the huge expenses. Urban planners advised strengthening the infrastructure: expanding the capacities of water reservoirs and build a stronger bridge. But it would take a long time, and Saakashvili needed to receive ‘‘everything at once’’.

Fortunately, the rain and the storm didn’t wash the whole of Batumi into the Black Sea on Tuesday morning. Its skyscrapers started shining in the sun again, giving hope that such a storm will not happen again for at least another ten years.