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.
  

