Gwangju City Rolls Up Sleeves for Flood Recovery with Citizens

Among 1,249 Facility Damages, 79% (977 Cases) Emergency Restoration Completed as of the 11th

On the afternoon of the 11th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, visited Shindeok Village in Gwangsan District, a flood damage site, and is cleaning up flooded household goods and waste together with volunteers. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City and its citizens have rolled up their sleeves to support the restoration of areas damaged by heavy rain.

Gwangju City announced on the 11th that for two days starting from the 11th, public officials and citizens have joined forces to carry out flood recovery activities to help residents in the affected areas and support their swift return to daily life.

A total of about 2,100 people are participating in this flood recovery effort, including approximately 1,600 Gwangju city employees, 350 members of three national movement organizations such as the Saemaul Association, the Council for the Promotion of Right Living, and the Korean Freedom Federation, as well as 160 soldiers from the 31st Division.

On the first day, the 11th, public officials and citizens went to the affected areas and worked hard on waste disposal, soil removal, greenhouse maintenance, organizing household goods, and house cleaning.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop also contributed to the recovery efforts by organizing household goods and collecting trash and waste from flooded houses in Shindeok Village, Songjeong-dong, Gwangsan-gu, together with city hall employees and volunteers.

The mayor said, “Although citizens are distressed due to the unprecedented heavy rain causing significant damage in many places, our Gwangju has wisely overcome difficulties with the spirit of sharing and solidarity known as the Gwangju Spirit. Gwangju City will do its best to support the affected residents so that they can return to their daily lives as soon as possible.”

Earlier, on the 10th, Gwangju City surveyed the damage status by autonomous districts and the support requests from the affected areas due to the heavy rain. As a result, 24 damaged areas (villages) requested restoration support: 3 in Dong-gu, 1 in Seo-gu, 2 in Nam-gu, 6 in Buk-gu, and 12 in Gwangsan-gu.

Additionally, on the 14th, 15 volunteers from Daegu are scheduled to visit Gwangju to join 35 Gwangju volunteers in joint volunteer activities for flood recovery in the affected areas.

Meanwhile, due to the heavy rain from the 7th to the 9th, as of 11 p.m. on the 10th, Gwangju reported 2 casualties including 1 death and 1 injury, and 472 displaced people from 309 households.

Facility damage totaled 1,249 cases, including 519 cases in public facilities such as road flooding around the Munheung-dong Cathedral area, 42 landslides such as the collapse of the slope at Geumdangsan, and 10 river-related damages such as the collapse of the Buksancheon embankment. Private facilities suffered 646 cases including 264 cases of basement flooding in houses and apartments and flooding of 1,164 hectares of farmland and greenhouses.

The city and autonomous districts immediately began emergency restoration, completing emergency repairs for 977 cases, or 79%, of the 1,249 facility damages as of this day, including urgent repairs of roads and water supply and sewage facilities, drainage work in flooded residential and commercial areas, and restoration of power outages and water supply interruptions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.