I have already received preliminary information. There are 770 houses that are left without roofs in Telavi; we all saw the fallen electricity transmitting poles. I personally saw the ruined asphalt, the main water building that is damaged, and ruined internal communications. The protection gabion has been damaged and the bridge was endangered. The following villages have been affected: Ozhio, Atskuri, Zemo Khodasheni, Ormugalo, as well as Tsnori, Sagarejo, and Lagodekhi. 80 percent of the settlements of Afeni, Leliani, Aresheferani and Giorgeti were hit by the hail storm. Just as everywhere, there are poles ruptured. The villages of Gurjaani – Vachnadziani, Kalauri, Vazisubani, and Velistsikhe were entirely, 100 percent, hit by the hail storm. Houses are left without roofs here. Similarly, the Kalauri School has been left roofless as well. I went there myself and saw the dire situation. There are 8 villages that were hit by the hail storm in Kvareli.

In short, based on the current situation, we assume that about 2,800 hectares have been 80-100 percent hailed on.   

Telavi – 6250 hectares have been ruined and inflicted with the most damage.

Kvareli – 2028 hectares, i.e. 90 percent is ruined.

Lagodekhi – 580 hectares are damaged.

Exactly the same degree of natural disaster has hit Tianeti. The Mstheta-Tianeti, the Dusheti District Village of Bulachauri were hit by hail; lands, the villages Ulelebi, Simoontkhevi have been ruined in the Tianeti municipality. 

There was a mudslide in Kazbegi as well.

You know that there was a problem in Javakheti.

We have been visiting these places since the morning and the Prime-Minister is already in charge of the restoration efforts.

Vano Merabishvili has decided himself, but I want to ask him to create an extraordinary staff, which he will head. The creation of a staff is not a mere formality, but it means that the leadership of relevant agencies will permanently be in Kakheti in order to determine the exact damage.

We should not allow anyone to stay homeless or roofless.

At first, streets have to be cleared in the next few hours. We have mobilized the reservists, who will arrive to the affected villages in few hours.

We have also mobilized the reservists of the staffed brigades. Dimitry Shashkin is in charge of this issue.

Thus, the reservists have to be everywhere, just as there will be machines and the relevant special vehicles everywhere.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is also engaged, and we have to help people – this is number one.

Number two, if there is anyone left homeless; every governor should take the responsibility that they do not spend night outside. It is very important and if there is anything required additionally, for example, beds, tents, products – we should send it.

Number three, we start the roofing from tomorrow – at some places there are two or three pieces ripped off, while at others, the entire roof is missing.

What is easy to fix will be fixed promptly. We have to contact companies in Tbilisi, and the affected houses will have entirely new roofs.

The resumption of gas and power is already underway and will be fully restored in 2-3 days.

We should employ the equipment of the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs so that there is no water problem in Telavi – we should distribute lots of water everywhere.

We have to immediately neutralize the inflicted damage, we have to restore the communications, and no one should be left homeless. We have to start the process of reconstruction of the ruined districts, villages and cities after this.

We are doing lots of things in any case, and when I came here I saw that the street we have previously renovated has been affected the least.

The reason for this is that everything we do is of quality. That is why we have to complete the work that was begun. There should not be a single damaged house left in Telavi, as well as in the villages of Gurjaani, Tianeti, Lagodekhi – but also not a single bad road, bad communications, a single ruined or ugly place.

Most importantly, these places have to become more comfortable than they used to be for people.

The places here indeed look like a battlefield and we should restore everything just as they do it after a war.

Vano Merabishvili has great experience at this, and Vano should be the coordinator and in charge of it all.

The second necessary thing is to study and register the population whose harvest has been ruined.

People were looking forward to the grape and peach harvest…while the natural disaster has destroyed trees, which means that they will have problems next year.

That is why we have to consider the issue of compensation, as we are talking about the only source of income for these families.

No matter what kind of poverty we are in, besides the budgetary issues, there are many other issues that need to be solved in the country and I would like to ask the parliament to convene an ad hoc meeting, in order to introduce changes to the budget – we need to allocate money to help people.