About 80,000 people displaced by Russian-Georgia
They are primarily sheltered in schools, hospitals and previously abandoned buildings. Most come from the Gori area, where the fighting has been the worst, and the Georgian government hopes they will be able to return home once Russian troops leave, Finance Minister Nika Gilauri said.
U.S. Brig. Gen. Jon Miller has ordered a U.S. military assessment team to draw up a response plan to provide for semi-permanent housing for about 20,000 people who have no homes to return to. He also wants such a housing plan to be capable of quick expansion to provide for the rest of the refugees if the Russians do not withdraw and people are unable to go home.
"We need to quickly take those 600 IDP (internally displaced person) centers and reduce that to a number that is more managable," Miller also told The Associated Press.
At a former Soviet military hospital in downtown Tbilisi where about 300 families have taken refuge, Georgian authorities had restored running water and electricity to part of the eight-story building and were working to extend them to other parts
Work already was underway restoring windows and repairing other areas of the building.
A team that included a U.S. military physician and engineer inspected the former hospital to determine how to make it a more permanent facility. They talked with the displaced people and volunteer helpers at the center about their longer-term needs.
Eliko Borcuadze, a 21-year-old woman who fled the strategic city of Gori with her mother on Aug. 8 amid Russian shelling of the city, said food was her greatest concern — but the refugees were getting by.
"The local government delivers food here — they are bringing in bread and sausages," she said. "We are sick of it already, but it is enough."
Prepared food packages flown in by the U.S. military began arriving Wednesday and were being distributed to the refugees in the building.
Zbigniew Probulski, a 55-year-old Pole from Gorlice who helped aid workers at the former hospital, said most people were concerned about ensuring they were prepared for the winter.
"All the infrastructure here is destroyed — there's no heating for example and nobody knows what to expect in the coming months," Probulski said
Probulski, who was on a tourist trip to Georgia when the fighting broke out and came to Tbilisi to help out, said people are also desperately seeking information about their loved ones.
"They are really worried about their family members who are still in the war zone, and their homes," he said.
