Powerful hailstorm devastates crops in central Georgia

Hectares of crops in central Georgia have been demolished in last night’s severe thunderstorm, leaving farmers without a way to feed their families for the rest of the year.

Farmers have spent the past 12 months tending to their fruit and vegetable crops and were preparing to harvest the yield when the hailstorm struck, ruining about 80 percent of crops in several villages in Dusheti and Gori municipalities.

In Gori the rainstorm affected the villages that bordered occupied Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia).

Locals from these villages said almost all of their fruits and vegetables were gone, which meant they had nothing left to feed themselves or their families for the rest of the year.

In Dusheti hail caused significant damage to roofs of several houses.

The hailstorm also caused major damage to local infrastructure in Georgia’s eastern Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Shida Kartli regions.

Authorities said once the scale of the damage had been fully assessed, the state would offer a helping hand to the affected farmers.

Most of the harmers did not have their harvest insured, said authorities.