Naju City, All-Out Effort to Restore Flood-Damaged Areas with Deployment of Public Officials

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Kang In-gyu) announced on the 10th that it will mobilize all 1,100 public officials to be actively deployed to flood recovery sites in each eup, myeon, and dong area.

Considering the severity of the damage, an immediate return order was issued to public officials who were on summer vacation.

The city plans to deploy about 200 personnel from local military units, related organizations, social groups, and political circles, including civilian, government, military, and political personnel, to support public assistance.

Earlier, since the heavy rain warning was issued on the 7th, up to 409.5 mm (cumulative average 318.5 mm) of heavy rain fell until the 9th.

Due to the record-breaking heavy rain, 115 houses were flooded mainly in low-lying villages adjacent to the Yeongsan River such as Dasimyeon, Yeonggang-dong, and Yeongsan-dong, and 48 displaced persons have been reported so far.

The green fields turned into a sea of water, causing serious damage to farms, with 1,454 hectares of farmland submerged, including rice paddies (1,344 ha) and facility vegetables (110 ha).

Also, 62 livestock barns (57 duck barns and 5 Korean cattle barns) were flooded, resulting in the death of more than 30,000 ducks.

Although there were no large landslides, 55 public facilities such as roads, river embankments, and water supply and sewage systems were flooded or washed away, and 16 cases of soil runoff occurred throughout the region, causing traffic inconvenience and property damage.

Accordingly, the city divided the recovery work into three stages: ‘housing,’ ‘crops and livestock barns,’ and ‘other public facilities,’ and began full-scale work by disaster response departments centered on the Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

Priority will be given to distributing relief supplies and managing temporary evacuation facilities for the stabilization of displaced persons’ lives, and administrative power will be focused on detailed damage surveys and emergency recovery of public and private facilities such as houses, roads, and water supply.

In addition, a specialized cooperation system with related organizations for disaster situations will be activated, including ▲environmental cleanup such as land and sea garbage collection ▲restoration of facilities in areas with disrupted traffic and communication ▲restoration of functions of life-related damaged facilities such as gas, electricity, and fuel ▲COVID-19 quarantine, public health, and medical service support ▲management of disaster supplies and volunteers.

The Volunteer Center is recruiting volunteers needed at disaster recovery sites, such as laundry, cleaning, and organizing household goods, until the completion of damage recovery.

Those who wish to volunteer can apply by phone to the center.

Mayor Kang In-gyu said, “I thank the city officials and volunteers who rolled up their sleeves for the displaced people in difficulty,” and added, “We will do our best to conduct thorough investigations and swift recovery work to ensure that no equity issues arise by region in this disaster damage recovery.”