A flooding of the river Nenska in the village of Tchuberi in Svaneti region has cut the village off from the rest of Georgia, as all five bridges have been destroyed, infrastructure has been heavily damaged and many of the houses are in water.
The village has no electricity and there is no mobile connection, Gvantsa Japaridze, a local official told the Netgazeti.ge.
According to her, it is very complicated for the emergency service staff to work at the scene due to the absence of bridges and the heavily damaged infrastructure. "Fortunately, no deaths have been reported yet,” Japaridze said.
Nino Vibliani, Tchuberi governor says that a cliff collapsed in the village which caused the raging mountain torrent. "The damage is huge," Agenda.ge cited her as saying.
Some media outlets wrote that the reason behind the disaster may be the construction of the Nenskra Hydro Power Plant in the village.
However, the company dismissed the statements and claimed that no construction works have been conducted since the year started.
"This year we have been only engaged with the rehabilitation of existing roads and bridges. Moreover, the disaster took place five kilometers far from the construction site,” the company Nenskta Hydro said.
Local officials say that the central part of the village is particularly damaged as the river cuts the village in two. They say that the authorities managed to timely evacuate the local population.
The head of the Emergency Situation Management Service Giorgi Mgebrishvili will arrive at the scene shortly, the Emergency Service press office said.
