Why Disaster Alerts? "Making Snowmen and Posting 인증샷" Guri City Contest Draws Criticism

Photo by Guri City Blog Post Capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-eun] On the 17th, as heavy snow was forecast across the country, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) raised the emergency response level for heavy snow from level 1 to level 2. Meanwhile, Guri City Hall in Gyeonggi-do sent a disaster text message saying "Make a snowman and send a proof shot," drawing criticism.

It was pointed out that the message was inappropriate for an emergency disaster alert and that it seemed to focus more on a kind of play, 'making snowmen,' rather than on concerns about Monday's commuting traffic chaos and various snow removal operations.

At around 3:25 PM that day, Guri City Hall sent a disaster text message to citizens saying, "Heavy snow is expected early tomorrow morning, so all Guri citizens, groups, and gatherings should participate in snow removal work." Later, at around 8:59 PM, another disaster text message was sent stating, "It's frustrating due to COVID-19, so come outside to sweep the snow. Public officials will do snow removal! Guri citizens, let's make snowmen together," according to reports.

Additionally, Guri City Hall posted a contest titled 'Clear the snow in front of your house and in our neighborhood and make a snowman' on its blog that day.

According to the blog post, the contest is scheduled to run from the 17th until the 28th of next month, and participants can send photos of snow sculptures made using snow from the Guri area. The two disaster text messages previously sent to citizens also included a link to this 'snowman making' contest.

This led to criticism that attaching a contest promotion link to an emergency disaster text message was inappropriate.

Comments on the contest announcement post on Guri City's blog included remarks such as "Is this something to send as a disaster text message?", "Promoting an event via disaster text instead of SNS," and "The problem is not the event but that it was sent as a disaster text message, which is a waste of tax money." Currently, the post has received more than 140 critical comments.

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