Gyeongnam Province Requests Declaration of Special Disaster Area for Sancheong County's Extreme Rain Damage

[Financial News] Gyeongsangnam-do announced that it will request the government to declare Sancheong County, which suffered extreme rain damage, as a special disaster area and to support emergency restoration funds.

Kim Myungjoo, Gyeongnam Province's Deputy Governor for Economic Affairs, said in a heavy rain situation report on the 20th, "We will proceed with customized support for bereaved families and victims, psychological treatment, emergency restoration of affected areas, and rapid recovery planning."

Deputy Governor Kim stated, "This heavy rain is a climate crisis-type localized disaster that occurred outside the existing disaster-prone areas," and added, "The province will respond to this situation with a heavy sense of responsibility, deploying all available resources and administrative power to focus on damage recovery and normalization of residents' lives."

According to the province's announcement, the average rainfall in the province from the 17th to the 19th reached 280mm. In Sancheong, nearly 100mm of heavy rain per hour poured down, resulting in over 750mm of rain over three days.

The human casualties identified so far are 8 deaths and 6 missing, totaling 14 people. Property damage includes 433 cases of public facility damage such as road and embankment collapses, and 63 cases of private facility damage such as house damage and flooding, totaling 496 cases reported.

The province is operating an integrated support headquarters in Sancheong-eup, Sancheong County, overseeing recovery support tasks. 

ahnman@fnnews.com Ahn Seunghyun Reporter