Eight villages in Georgia had crops damaged by hail

The large hail stones caused damage to mainly peach trees and vineyards.

TBILISI, DFWatch–Eight villages were affected by the hailstorm April 10, which lasted about 20 minutes and destroyed crops, mainly peach trees and vineyards.

Among the villages that were damaged were Ruispiri, Ikalto, Kondoli and Tsinandali. In some of the villages, special commissions are now working to count the losses. Such commissions have not yet been created in Kvareli and Akhmeta, local media reports.

Locals said the rain started at about 17:00 and was followed by storm and hail, which destroyed fruit and flooded houses.

“We had planted 1 000 peach trees and almost all of them are destroyed,” Mariam Khanjaliashvili told International Center of Kakheti. Her family was victim of the previous strong hailstorm in the summer of 2012.

Locals in the village Ruispiri cannot remember such a storm. They say it destroyed all the fruit in their gardens and fields.

“I was crying. I can’t describe what happened here. We are at zero – we worked for the whole season and now there is no onion, garlic, fruit, nothing left,” Neli Morbedadze told journalists.

Local government representatives promise to calculate the extent of the damage within a week and decide the issue of compensation for each affected family.

Minister of Agriculture Davit Kirvalidze, who visited some affected villages on Thursday, said that the ministry will help the affected families as much as possible.

“We will distribute cards which will allowed them to buy copper-containing pesticides, which is necessary for the soil after hail,” the minister said.