Villages, crops, livestock destroyed by hailstorm in southern Georgia

Residents in south-east Georgia are cleaning up the mess caused by bad weather and heavy rain that crashed down on the Samtskhe-Javakheti region yesterday.

Local newspaper Samkhretis Karibche reported four villages in Adigeni municipality, eight in Akhaltsikhe and one village in Borjomi area were severely damaged by heavy rain and hail.

The storm caused major damage; it destroyed crops, killed poultry and livestock and flooded several houses. Roads in the area were also blocked by debris.

Heavy rain and hailstorm destroyed crops, killed poultry and livestock and flooded several houses in Samtskhe-Javakheti region yesterday, Photo by local citizen for the newspaper Samkretis Karibche.

Locals in affected areas said their harvest had been completely destroyed and asked for help from the local government.

A source at Samkhretis Karibche said every person at the newspaper was working extremely hard and they did not have enough manpower to cover the story thoroughly, so encouraged the public to take photos from the disaster area and upload the photos to the newspaper’s Facebook page.

Since the announcement readers have sent in dozens of photos showing serious damage to the newspaper’s social media page.

Here are some of the photos taken by citizen journalists.

Stones brought from mountains blocked the main road in Atskhuri, in Akhaltsikhe municipality. Photo by local citizen for the newspaper Samkretis Karibche.

Mudslide carried away local's car and dragged it for for several hundred meters. Photo by local citizen for the newspaper Samkretis Karibche.