“Whoever wasn’t swallowed [by mud], survived, didn’t they? There was no such case where a body was found a few hours later. I don’t see how this can be argued, to be honest, what difference does it make whether we started the rescue operation in 15 minutes or an hour, considering the mass [of landslide], it wouldn’t have made any difference. Whoever wasn’t in the direct path of the torrent, was eventually rescued, do you get it?,” Mikheil Sarjveladze, a member of the parliament from Georgian Dream and a chairman of the human rights committee, told the media regarding the Shovi tragedy.
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“If you had any evidence that, for example, some mass kept accumulating there over time past the initial collapse, this discussion would have made sense, but this definitely wasn’t the case.
Given what happened there, I don’t think immediate response would have made any difference, for any person…,” said the deputy.
In Racha, on the territory of Shovi Resort, the glacial avalanche on August 3 destroyed the resort almost completely. So far, 19 bodies have been found, of which 14 have been identified. According to official reports, 15 are still missing, including children. The rescue operation started only three hours later, people trapped in mud were asking for urgent help.
Today, the Speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, commented on the belated launch of the rescue operation:
“There was no delay.
The helicopter arrived not 3 hours late, but in 3 hours. In just 3 hours.
The flight takes one hour. After receiving the report, of course, you need to check which equipment you need, then, the equipment needs to be readied – it’s not a car to just jump in and set off, it needs preparation; the helicopter got there in just 3 hours.
Absolutely all tasks set by the rescue service were completed. You know that I was also there for a few days. Part of the survivors were pulled out on the first day and the rest were moved to a safe place, provided with all the necessities, and extracted on the next morning,” Papuashvili told journalists.
