Myeong Hyun-gwan, Haenam County Governor, Continues Intensive Efforts in Flood Damage Recovery for a Week

All Staff Civil Support 'Recovery Completed Within 2-3 Days'

(Left) Myeong Hyun-gwan, Haenam County Governor, visited the damage site and instructed to ensure prompt recovery. (Photo by Haenam County)

[Haenam＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Myeong Hyun-gwan, the mayor of Haenam County, has been busy for a week with a concentrated schedule, continuing on-site inspections of the damaged areas to recover from the heavy rain damage.

According to Haenam County on the 12th, since directly visiting the flooded house at Daheungsa Temple in Samsan-myeon in the early morning of the 6th, when casualties occurred due to the heavy rain, Mayor Myeong has been running around every corner of the damaged sites, even giving up weekends.

Through on-site inspections, he comforted the residents who suffered flood damage and instructed related departments and eup/myeon offices to “concentrate all the capabilities of the county government” so that customized support can be provided promptly.

Under the direct command of Mayor Myeong Hyun-gwan, Haenam County is promoting rapid and efficient recovery by having eup/myeon heads directly visit the damaged areas, create damage lists by sector, and manage them comprehensively.

Since the afternoon of the 6th, when the recovery work began in earnest, 466 heavy equipment such as excavators and dump trucks have been mobilized to carry out emergency repairs to prevent secondary damage to public facilities such as embankments and roads.

As of the afternoon of the 11th, the recovery rate for damaged areas including 69 river erosion sites, 45 drainage channels, and 103 km of farm roads shows 67% for 18 km of small rivers, 33% for 4 km of local rivers, and 42% for 43 km of drainage channels and farm road maintenance.

For the 125 households affected by flooding such as house inundation, more than 20 local social organizations, military units, related agencies, and eup/myeon staff have been fully mobilized to carry out household cleaning and disinfection. Recovery support has been completed for 106 households so far, enabling rapid restoration.

Additionally, as most drainage has been completed, manpower is also being contributed to the restoration of farmland, including the removal of crops damaged by flooding and the maintenance of facility greenhouses.

From the afternoon of the 12th, aerial pest control using drones and unmanned helicopters will be conducted over approximately 5,200 hectares of rice cultivation areas affected by flooding and waterlogging.

In particular, the county has entered an emergency duty system for public officials, with about 780 employees visiting damaged farms in eup/myeon areas over the weekend to provide public support. So far, about 1,460 personnel have been mobilized for recovery, including 968 public officials, 397 civilian volunteers, and 95 soldiers.

Emergency public support through the emergency duty system is scheduled until the 13th, with plans to complete recovery of flooded houses by the 12th and to deploy additional manpower to households lacking labor.

Former leader Lee Nak-yeon, former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, and Jeollanam-do Governor Kim Young-rok also visited the damaged areas to inspect the sites and exchanged opinions on proposals for declaring special disaster zones and establishing permanent disaster prevention measures.

Mayor Myeong Hyun-gwan stated, “We have been making every effort for rapid damage recovery, including maintaining an emergency duty system with all employees for the past week,” and added, “We are mobilizing all the capabilities of the county government with the determination to complete emergency recovery within the next 2 to 3 days.”

Haenam=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun kh0424@asiae.co.kr