Villagers in the mountains of Dagestan are counting the damage from the bad weather.

In the high-mountain village of Khosrekh, blockaded by snow, dozens of homes were damaged and numerous livestock were lost. Landslides threaten transportation in Dagestan's Kulinsky District.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on April 9, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov announced an increase in the level of emergency in Dagestan and Chechnya due to the flooding situation. In addition, on April 15, the head of Dagestan introduced a regional state of emergency due to inclement weather in several areas of the republic, including mountainous areas, where people found themselves in difficult conditions due to snowfall.

Media reports about the disaster in the Kulinsky District helped draw attention to the problems of local residents, Abdujalil, a resident of the village of Khosrekh, told the Caucasian Knot. According to him, children were evacuated from farms cut off from the main part of the village. "Various channels were involved: NNT came, filmed the video, notified Dagestan, but I have no information about how the authorities responded. Once, the Ministry of Emergency Situations sent a helicopter to pick up children from the farms; three children were taken away, and the helicopter was never seen again," he said.

The farm residents, he said, found themselves in the most difficult situation. "The village itself isn't suffering that much, but the people on the farm are trapped. Their only salvation is a helicopter, probably because horses can't get there; the horses are dying. And there's absolutely no way to get there. And there are farms where there wasn't even a road, so people had to go there either on motorcycles or horses," Abdujalil explained.

According to him, Khosrekh experienced two waves of heavy snowfall in the last week. Since April 15, the situation has gradually improved, and the village now has electricity. "But the connection is poor; cell towers are apparently connected to the power grid, and many are out of order. There is power in the village, but people have trouble getting through, so young people are forced to travel to the mountains, where the connection is better," Abdujalil noted.

A Khosrekh resident fears that landslides could block the road to the Kulinsky district from all sides. "It's practically impossible to get there from the city right now: some people take the risk and drive along the road, but there's a huge landslide looming overhead that's about to collapse. People still take the risk and drive through, even though it's mortally dangerous," he added.

Khosrekh's head, Arsen Allarazuev, confirmed that there's electricity in the village. Communications, he said, have also been restored. "Everything's fine now, communications have been restored and are functioning normally. We have food supplies, too. We're expecting an EMERCOM helicopter to arrive (on April 16) and bring medicine," he told the "Caucasian Knot."

He noted that the bulk of the aid to the villagers was provided by volunteers from among the natives of Khosrekh. Local authorities now face the challenge of rebuilding homes damaged during the disaster.

"Up to 70 houses were damaged: some had roofs collapsed, and water had seeped in elsewhere. We will decide with the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other agencies what to do—either carry out repairs without resettling people, or evacuate some of the residents of the damaged houses. But the main thing is that the people themselves are all safe and alive. We haven't yet calculated how many horses and other livestock have perished," Allarazuyev noted.

Residents of another high-mountain region of Dagestan, Tsuntinsky, complained on April 14 that due to frequent power outages and a lack of backup power, vital medical equipment at the local hospital is not working. "Caucasian Knot" was unable to reach the official phone numbers for the Tsuntinsky hospital; Adilbek, an employee of the institution located in Makhachkala, reported that he himself was unable to contact colleagues.

"They called me and said the power was back on. But whether the medical equipment is working or whether there are enough medications is unknown right now. I tried calling myself, but there was no connection," he told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Adilbek noted that there was no mass transfer of patients from the Tsuntinskaya Hospital. "Regarding one patient, I was told he was flown to Makhachkala by helicopter; he likely had a serious case. The rest are staying where they are," he added.