Pohang and Gyeongju designated disaster zones after typhoon

Vehicles damaged during Typhoon Hinnamnor fill a parking lot outside a sports arena in Pohang, North Gyeongsang on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

 
President Yoon Suk-yeol designated the southeastern cities of Pohang and Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang as disaster zones on Wednesday, a day after they were struck by Typhoon Hinnamnor.
 
In an evening press release, the presidential office said Yoon decided to declare the two areas as special disaster zones immediately upon his return to Seoul after a visit to Pohang.  
 
The presidential office said the decision was made in light of the scale of the damage incurred by the two cities, the severity of the typhoon’s impact on local residents’ day-to-day lives, and the results of a preliminary investigation by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters into the physical destruction wreaked by the typhoon.
 
Nine people were found trapped in a flooded underground parking lot of an apartment complex in Pohang late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Two survived, but the others were later pronounced dead.
 
Among the dead was a 14-year-old teenager, who went down into the underground parking lot to make sure his 52-year-old mother was safe as she attempted to move her car aboveground after hearing the parking lot was flooding early Tuesday morning.
 
While the woman survived, her son died along with six others in the same apartment complex who were also trying to move their cars on Tuesday morning as the typhoon barreled through Korea’s southeast corner.
 
Yoon, who stayed at his office until past midnight Tuesday to oversee the response to the typhoon, said he spent a “sleepless night” after hearing of the deaths in Pohang.
 
The president presided over a Cabinet meeting the next day to assess the damage from the typhoon.
 
The government plans to declare additional special disaster zones in other areas as soon as it is confirmed they meet requirements. The government will conduct its own investigation into typhoon damages from Sept. 9 to 15 as well as an inter-agency joint investigation from Sept. 16 to 22.  
 
The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters explained that the special disaster zones in Gyeongju and Pohang were designated first to speed up recovery efforts. 
 
Local governments in regions that have been declared special disaster zones can share 50 to 80 percent of the costs for necessary repairs and reconstruction projects with the central government.
 
Not only do residents of special disaster zones receive multiple exemptions from paying national and local taxes, they are also subject to lower health insurance, electricity, telecommunications and gas rates.  
 
The special disaster zone designation system was introduced in 2002 to ease financial burdens on local governments and people saddled with repair costs associated with natural disasters. The designation has been applied 38 times to date.  
 
Following last month’s torrential rainstorm, 10 areas including Gwanak District, southern Seoul and Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi, were declared special disaster zones on Aug 22, while seven more areas, including Dongjak District, southern Seoul, were declared as special disaster areas on Sept. 1.
 
The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said that local governments will pay out disaster support funds to affected residents even before the government’s recovery plan is finalized, and that disaster relief funds from the central government will be delivered quickly to local governments for distribution.
 
The agency also plans to cooperate with local governments to investigate areas affected by Typhoon Hinnamnor and provide support as soon as possible.
 
The agency’s director Lee Sang-min said, “We hope that relief measures will help local governments recover quickly from the damage caused by the typhoon. We will closely analyze the damages and formulate a permanent recovery plan.”
 

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]