Chungnam Geumsan and Yesan Designated as Additional Special Disaster Areas

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The government has additionally designated Geumsan-gun and Yesan-gun in Chungnam as special disaster zones.

According to Chungnam Province on the 24th, the government declared Geumsan and Yesan as special disaster zones on the same day, following Cheonan and Asan.

Due to recent heavy rains, across Chungnam, there have been 151 cases of road washouts, 573 cases of river embankment collapse and washouts, 3,563 hectares of farmland flooded and crops lost or buried, 303 landslides, and 1,740 cases of residential and commercial building flooding, totaling 13,151 cases of property damage reported.

The total damage amount compiled by the central joint investigation is 89 billion KRW (83.1 billion KRW for public facilities, 5.9 billion KRW for private facilities). By region, the damage amounts were recorded as Cheonan 23.7 billion KRW, Asan 20.8 billion KRW, Yesan 19.1 billion KRW, and Geumsan 16.1 billion KRW.

The province is currently deploying 5,143 pieces of equipment and 48,176 personnel including volunteers and public officials to restore 1,861 public facilities and 10,081 private facilities, achieving an emergency restoration rate of 90.8%.

In particular, areas declared as special disaster zones such as Geumsan and Yesan will receive up to 86% of public facility restoration costs supported by national funds, which is expected to accelerate disaster recovery efforts.

Special disaster zones will first see expanded national funding support for farmland restoration costs and damage to agricultural and forestry facilities.

Additionally, 80% of national funding support will be provided for housing total destruction or loss (16 million KRW), partial destruction (8 million KRW), flooding (2 million KRW), and tenant deposit and rent (300,000 KRW). Indirect support such as reductions in health insurance premiums, communication fees, electricity bills, city gas fees, and district heating fees will also be provided.

The province plans to provide advance support from the provincial disaster relief fund to residents who suffered total destruction or flooding of their homes to help stabilize their lives early.

Yang Seung-jo, Governor of Chungnam Province, said, “The province will do its best to ensure rapid emergency restoration by concentrating administrative power with cities and counties. We will also devote all efforts to relief activities so that residents affected by the flood can quickly return to their daily lives, while simultaneously promoting permanent restoration measures to prepare for future disaster situations.”

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