Heavy rain and hailstorm last night damaged farmlands and houses in some parts of eastern region of Kakheti.

The town of Kvareli and some of its nearby villages, including Sanavardo, were among the heavily hit areas, where hail damaged crops, house roofs and cars.

Basements of houses in some of the villages of Lagodekhi municipality were flooded and a landslide in Akhameta municipality damaged a road, according to the Interior Ministry’s emergency service, which had to send units from Tbilisi to help with response.

According to preliminary estimation the hailstorm damaged about 1,500-2,000 hectares of vineyard, said Agriculture Minister Otar Danelia, who is visiting Kakheti region. Precise number of affected households and farmlands has yet to be determined.

Danelia said that although anti-hail guns, produced by the state-owned Delta military industrial complex, were deployed and 50 anti-hail rockets, each worth of EUR 300, fired, it helped to “partially prevent” hailstorm because it had to deal with mostly already formed hail. He, however, said it was possible to “completely prevent” hailstorm in previous days. Delta said that it fired over 70 anti-hail rockets on August 19-20, which prevented hailstorm in Sagarejo, Gurjaani, Lagodekhi, Akhmeta and Telavi.