Gurye-gun Holds Flood Damage Recovery Measures Meeting

[Gurye=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yuk Miseok] On the 15th, Jeollanam-do Gurye-gun announced that on the 14th, a flood damage recovery measures meeting was held at the Gurye Multipurpose Gymnasium with the Gurye County Council, related institutions and social organizations, the flood damage recovery headquarters, and village chiefs of affected villages.

County Governor Kim Soon-ho said, “Gurye-gun suffered great damage due to floods on the 7th and 8th,” adding, “Not only did this attract significant attention from the public and political circles, but our proactive damage recovery response also served as a reference for other local governments.”

He continued, “However, many fake news stories emerged during the process of promoting various support measures beyond the legal fixed-rate compensation,” and said, “We organized this meeting to correct those and to accurately explain the situation that the county has been pursuing so far to resolve the residents’ concerns.”

The affected residents asked questions including ▲whether the 332.4 billion won of national and local government budget secured by the county can be used as compensation for the affected residents ▲the reason why the damage assessor service fee was increased from the initial 50 million won to 450 million won ▲whether additional disaster relief funds can be provided by securing more county funds ▲whether it is possible to purchase all the rice damaged by the flood ▲and what efforts Gurye-gun is making for residents who consider the flood damage to be man-made.

Governor Kim said, “The 332.4 billion won granted by the government must be used for permanent restoration of public facilities, so it cannot be used as compensation for affected residents through budget reallocation.”

The only way for affected residents to receive additional compensation beyond what they have received so far is through compensation or reimbursement via the Ministry of Environment or the Korea Water Resources Corporation, and this process requires certification by a damage assessor, so the county is promoting a service contract.

The initially estimated damage assessor service fee of 50 million won was stated to be the project cost for investigating the average of 20 sample households, which cannot be used as accurate data in the subsequent compensation or reimbursement process.

If damage investigation services are promoted for each household, the service fee amounts to 1.5% of the damage amount, which is estimated to be about 1.2 billion won, but as a result of negotiations by the county, the service is being promoted at 450 million won.

Also, additional disaster relief payments using county funds are only possible by using contingency funds from the poor county finances. The county will prioritize efforts to ensure that government compensation is reliably implemented, and the decision on whether and how to provide additional disaster relief payments will be separately discussed with the council.

Jo Jae-won, head of the Nonghyup, said that they plan to purchase all the rice damaged by the flood, as they did during last year’s typhoon.

Governor Kim Soon-ho stated, “I sympathize with the residents’ opinion that the flood damage is man-made and that they must be compensated 100%.”

Above all, he asked all residents to unite their voices and join forces, as a lot of time and effort are needed for definite compensation.

Meanwhile, Gurye-gun, the Gurye County Council, and the flood damage recovery headquarters agreed to join forces to demand and respond more strongly to compensation.

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