Jeonnam Province Mobilizes All Employees for Full-Scale Flood Damage Recovery Effort

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province has stepped up to urgently restore the Gurye, Gokseong, and Damyang areas, which suffered extensive damage from the record-breaking heavy rain from the 5th to the 8th.

On the 9th, the province quickly organized an emergency restoration support team of about 600 public officials and began full-scale deployment to the flood-damaged sites in Gurye, Gokseong, and Damyang starting on the 10th.

In response to urgent requests from the field to rescue flooded households, even employees on vacation immediately returned to participate in the recovery efforts, resulting in virtually all staff except essential personnel being deployed for restoration work.

Prior to this, the Jeonnam Integrated Volunteer Center was immediately activated to recruit 270 volunteers from 22 city and county volunteer centers and deployed them to the sites to engage in emergency recovery activities such as delivering relief supplies, meal services, and evacuating disaster victims.

Including about 720 volunteer firefighters in the province who participate daily in recovery efforts, volunteer participation from various private organizations in the province, such as the Namdo Love Volunteer Group and the Autonomous Fire Brigade Association, is rapidly increasing.

Following the urgent restoration of the most severely flood-damaged areas of Gurye, Gokseong, and Damyang, the province designated senior officials from all departments as on-site situation managers for each of the 22 cities and counties to monitor damage in real time and activated a department-based city and county task force system to continuously support recovery efforts.

Jeonnam Governor Kim Young-rok stated, “We will do our best to support recovery efforts so that residents, who are deeply distressed by the heavy rain damage, can return to their daily lives as soon as possible,” and urged, “Since relief personnel and supplies are severely lacking at the flood-damaged sites, we hope public institutions and private organizations will actively participate in the recovery efforts.”