SOVIET PAPER DETAILS GEORGIAN FLOOD DAMAGE
Floods and avalanches killed 110 people
and caused around 350 mln roubles worth of damage in the
southern Soviet republic of Georgia earlier this year, the
government daily Izvestia said.
    Some 80,000 hectares of agricultural land and gardens had
been inundated, damaging tea plantations and orange groves, the
newspaper said. It added that spring sowing in southern parts
of the country was some two weeks behind schedule because of
the late thaw but gave no precise crop estimates.
    In the most detailed report to date on the heavy snows in
January and floods in February, Izvestia said 8,200 people had
been evacuated from mountain areas, 4,500 houses had been
damaged and hundreds of kilometres of roads and power lines had
been destroyed.
    A separate article in the daily warned that a sudden thaw
was expected shortly in the Ukraine and southern parts of
Russia, which experienced record snows this winter.
    Preventive measures have already been taken in some areas
including the evacuation of cattle.
 Reuter
