Major flooding in Tbilisi last night (8 people confirmed dead). Zoo has been completely destroyed, with animals drowning and lions, panthers, tigers, bears and wolves on the loose. The zoo’s hippo escaped too but has been captured. An extremely endangered white lion has broken free as well. The police is hunting the animals down and shooting them with regular ammunition, the zoo’s staff has called on everyone not to call the police if they see the white lion.
The largest dog shelter hosting several brown bears was flooded completely as well. All bears are confirmed dead, the amount of dogs that have drowned is unknown (it hosts 500 dogs…).
BUT
everyone has come together to help out. There is a google doc going around to ask people to register and help volunteering. I will keep you updated on what initiatives come of the ground to help rehabilitating after this tragedy.
I wish you all the best of luck. It looks like the flood part of the situation is mostly contained already. The animals are a different story I guess…
One could put some volunteers with high powered optics on/in large buildings. If it is still very wet and muddy it may also make sense to look for tracks in your back yard. At night it can help to light some places selectively and put out food for the animals there (and nowhere else). That would have to be coordinated with the local government to have any chance at being effective. That may make it easier to catch them without too much trouble.
Here’s the rough (first draft level) How-To for Community Driven Disaster Management that I wrote yesterday for Tbilisi. It’s not much, just the main tips from what we found out has worked well after the earthquake here in Nepal. Hope it helps / inspires somehow
