Escaped zoo tiger kills man in Tbilisi, Georgia – CNN.com
Tbilisi, Georgia (CNN)Police have shot and killed a white tiger that killed a man Wednesday in Tbilisi, Georgia, a Ministry of Internal Affairs representative said, after severe flooding allowed hundreds of wild animals to escape the city zoo.
The tiger attack happened at a warehouse in the city center. The animal had been unaccounted for since the weekend floods destroyed the zoo premises.
The man killed, who was 43, worked in a company based in the warehouse, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. Doctors said he was attacked in the throat and died before reaching the hospital.
Experts are still searching the warehouse, the ministry said, adding that earlier reports that the tiger had injured a second man were unfounded.
The zoo administration said Wednesday that another tiger was still missing. It was unable to confirm if the creature was dead or had escaped alive.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili apologized to the public, saying he had been misinformed by the zoo’s management when he’d previously said there were no more dangerous animals on the run.
City residents were urged to stay indoors for their own safety in the immediate aftermath of the floods. Volunteers have since been helping city workers with the cleanup operation.
Hippopotamus captured in city square
At least 19 people died in the flooding, according to Civil Georgia, a news website run by the nongovernmental organization United Nations Association of Georgia. Six more remained missing, it said Tuesday, citing the State Security and Crisis Management Council.
Meanwhile, the zoo lost about half of its 600 animals, including lions, tigers, bears and wolves, in the natural disaster.
Some animals have since been recaptured, Civil Georgia reported. Others died in the floods or have been killed by police as they scour the streets for escapees.
Russian state news outlet RT.com reported Wednesday that an African penguin had made it 60 kilometers (37 miles) downriver from Tbilisi before being caught alive in a dragnet on the border with Azerbaijan.
Video from the city showed a large crocodile being restrained by rescuers, as well as a hippopotamus standing in floodwaters, looking confused.
The latter was eventually cornered in a city square before being tranquilized and recaptured. One terrified bear escaped the flood by perching on a window ledge.
Video footage also showed devastation across swaths of the Georgian capital, where flash floods swept away roads, at least one house and many trees. The corpses of dead animals could be seen amid the wreckage.
Vehicles tossed like toys
The problems began before midnight Saturday when heavy rainfall turned the Vere River, usually little more than a stream through the center of Tbilisi, into a raging torrent, according to Civil Georgia.
Images on Tbilisi City Hall’s Facebook page showed roads washed out, hillsides collapsed and vehicles tossed about like toys. Rescue workers carried people on their shoulders through waist-high water.
Garibashvili extended his condolences Tuesday to the families of those killed in the flooding.
He also proposed the creation of a park in the zoo premises to honor those lost. “It will be a park of solidarity, a symbol of our unity, selflessness, and mutual support,” he said in a statement on his website.
President Georgi Margvelashvili earlier said the capital’s mayoral office would help those who had lost out financially as a result of the floods.
“The situation is difficult, but it can be handled except for the fact that we cannot bring back those who died,” he said.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, as few as 3,200 tigers exist in the wild today.
Man collected rainwater to survive 66 days at sea
The story of Louis Jordan’s survival is nothing short of amazing.
Jordan, who had been missing for more than two months, was rescued Thursday after he was found 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina, the Coast Guard said.
“I had many moments where I thought I was going to die.” said Jordan, 37, of Conway, S.C.
Jordan had been living on his docked sailboat at Bucksport Plantation Marina in Conway until Jan. 23, when he told his family he was “going into the open water to sail and do some fishing,” said his mother, Norma Davis, of Jacksonville, N.C. The family had not heard from him since and reported him missing Jan. 29.
“I was planning on going out to get some fish and come back,” he told Good Morning America. “I didn’t plan on it taking that long.”
Instead, his boat became disabled. Jordan survived eating the food he had on his boat, by collecting rainwater and using a net to catch fish, said Lt, Krystyn Pecora, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
He managed to stay hydrated by going inside his boat’s cabin a lot, she said.
“Sometimes I had to wade through water up to my thigh because the cabin was so full of water, and I had to bail hundreds of gallons out,” Jordan said. “There was often days of rain, nonstop rain, and I couldn’t just dry out my clothes and my blankets.”
A German container ship named the Houston Express spotted him around 1:30 p.m. ET Thursday about 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C.
Details about how Jordan went missing are still being investigated.
“(There’s) no reason to question what happened, and we’ll get more information when they (investigators) can speak to him,” Pecora said.
Jordan’s 35-foot sailboat had lost its mast and capsized, Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss said.
But the boat was upright rescuers found it, Pecora said.
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew launched about 3:40 p.m. from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., met the Houston Express, hoisted Jordan into the chopper and flew him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia, landing at about 7:30 p.m.
Jordan injured his shoulder, Pecora said, but didn’t explain how that happened. He was released from the hospital early Friday.
“It’s amazing,” his mother said. “It’s been very difficult not knowing anything, and I just feel like all of our prayers have come true. They’ve been answered.”
Jordan had spent months sanding and painting his docked 1950s-era, single-masted sailboat in Conway, where marina manager Jeff Weeks said he saw him nearly every day. Jordan was the only resident in a section of about 20 boats docked behind a coded security gate.
“You’ll probably never meet a nicer guy,” Weeks said. “He is a quiet gentleman that most of the time keeps to himself. He’s polite. I would describe him as a gentle giant:” measuring 6-foot-2 and weighing 230 pounds.
Jordan appeared to be knowledgeable about wild fruits and mushrooms and fished for his meal in inland waterways, Weeks said. But his January trip may have been his first time sailing in the open ocean.
“He might sail up and down the Intracoastal Waterway, but he didn’t have the experience he needed to go out into the ocean,” Weeks said.
Alerts had been issued from New Jersey to Miami to be on the lookout for Jordan and his sailboat, said Marilyn Fajardo, another Coast Guard spokeswoman. Officials also searched financial data to determine whether Jordan actually had come ashore without being noticed, but they found no indication that he had.
A search was begun Feb. 8, but Fajardo said the Coast Guard abandoned its efforts after 10 days. Despite reports from other sailors claiming to have seen Jordan’s sailboat, none of the sightings were confirmed and the case was suspended.
The Coast Guard said Jordan didn’t file a “float plan,” the nautical equivalent of a flight plan, to determine his route or destination, and Fajardo said the Coast Guard didn’t have enough information to narrow down his whereabouts.
Davis said she is looking forward to celebrating her son’s return.
“We do plan on having a wonderful Easter celebration with family, and I can’t wait to get him back,” she said.