Gwangju City Activates Emergency Response Team for Heavy Snow and Cold Wave in Collaboration with District Offices

On the afternoon of the 7th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended and presided over an emergency countermeasure meeting against heavy snow and cold waves held at the Chungmu Facility of the City Hall. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City has launched immediate measures to reduce citizen damage and inconvenience caused by heavy snow and cold waves by operating a ‘City-District Joint Emergency Snow and Cold Wave Countermeasure Team’ and a situation room until the end of next month, as well as opening a 24-hour emergency phone line.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop of Gwangju convened an emergency joint countermeasure meeting with the city and district offices on the afternoon of the 7th to share weather conditions and discuss measures such as snow removal work as heavy snow increased citizen damage and inconvenience in the Gwangju area.

The countermeasure meeting was attended by deputy district heads of the five autonomous districts in the jurisdiction, the head of the Citizen Safety Office at the city hall, the head of the General Construction Headquarters, the head of the Urban Railroad Construction Headquarters, the head of the Fire Safety Headquarters, and other related department heads.

At the meeting, the city unified the reception desk for citizens’ complaints related to heavy snow and cold waves into the ‘City-District Joint Emergency Snow and Cold Wave Countermeasure Team’ and established a hotline with autonomous districts and related departments to immediately resolve citizen inconveniences.

Also, if citizens need support such as snow removal, equipment rental, or damage recovery, they can request assistance anytime through the ‘City-District Joint Emergency Snow and Cold Wave Countermeasure Team,’ which will take immediate action.

The representative phone numbers for the ‘City-District Emergency Snow and Cold Wave Countermeasure Team’ are ▲Gwangju City 613-2119 ▲Dong-gu 608-2845 ▲Seo-gu 360-7471 ▲Nam-gu 607-2941~3 ▲Buk-gu 410-6490 ▲Gwangsan-gu 960-6896.

Meanwhile, since the previous day, Gwangju City has checked the city and district response posture following the issuance of weather warnings and activated the Disaster Safety Countermeasure Headquarters to respond.

To help citizens prepare for commuting inconveniences in advance, disaster messages were sent by time zone from the previous night, and public officials’ commuting time was delayed to 10 a.m. to deploy them for snow removal work.

Additionally, using 40 snow removal vehicles and 1,005 tons of snow removal agents, snow removal work was carried out on 269 routes covering 686 km, including bridges and overpasses, and 33 city bus routes were shortened or rerouted to prevent safety accidents.

On the morning of the 7th, when a heavy snow warning was issued, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, rode a snow removal vehicle from the General Construction Headquarters to inspect the snow removal status on urban roads and then examined the snow removal equipment. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

In particular, Mayor Lee Yong-seop personally rode a snow removal vehicle on the morning of the day to inspect road conditions and vulnerable snow removal sections, while receiving real-time reports from the field to respond to heavy snow and cold waves.

Mayor Lee said, “With COVID-19, cold waves, and heavy snow, citizens’ sighs are deepening, and my heart is heavy,” adding, “I hope the city and the five district offices will closely operate the emergency countermeasure team and situation room to protect citizens’ safety and resolve inconveniences.”

He also asked citizens to refrain from going out as much as possible and to exercise special caution such as safe driving and safe walking.

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