Search is on for people, zoo animals missing In Georgia flood

Workers and volunteers labored Monday in a flood-ravaged area of the Georgian capital to help victims while nervously watching for traces of dangerous animals that may have escaped the city zoo when it was inundated by the surging waters. Officials in the ex-Soviet republic said 14 people were confirmed dead. The devastated zoo was still trying to determine what had happened to four lions, three tigers and one jaguar whose enclosures were flooded, zoo spokeswoman Khatia Basilashvili said.

We dragged them out of their cages, but they tried to go back into the cages because those are their homes.

Nati Mzhavia, volunteer

A number of other wild cats — four lions, three tigers and two jaguars — were killed either in the flood or while on the loose, when some were shot by police. But it was unclear how many more animals would be found dead once the waters receded and the cleanup was completed at the zoo, or how many were still wandering the hills around Tbilisi. The heavy rain that began shortly before midnight Sunday caused a landslide that blocked what is normally a pleasant stream in the hilly city, but as the floodwaters grew in strength, the fierce torrent broke through. The homes of about 40 families were destroyed.