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An 18th day of record snowfalls in the Southwest and Jeju Island has damaged over 100 buildings -- mainly farmhouses, barns and schools -- and paralyzed highway traffic and shipping and grounded flights. A civil servant in his 40s was killed when a greenhouse collapsed on him. Traffic on the Honam Expressway came to a complete standstill but resumed Thursday morning on one lane in each direction, but sky and sea routes remain mostly closed, as do 1,196 schools.
The Korea Meteorological Administration has forecast another 5-30 cm of snow in the region over the next two or three days. If the government does not operate a prompt and effective relief and rehabilitation system, the damage could snowball.
The government needs to reconsider its decision not to declare the Southwest and Jeju special disaster zones. Officials say damage in each of the administrative areas separately falls short of the W300 billion (US$300 million) that would qualify them as disaster zones. But because the limit will be lowered to W3.5 billion next year, most of the region would then be eligible. There is a precedent where the government, late in 2002, revised laws defining disaster areas and applied the revision retroactively to areas including Kimhae and Haman in South Gyeongsang Province that had suffered serious flood damage that summer.
Our village population is shrinking. It is mostly elderly people who are left to tend the farms as young people move to the city. When a disaster as serious as this hits such villages, they cannot cope, having almost no spare hands left that could help with disaster rehabilitation and relief. That is why the government must do more than it usually would.
Above all, it must do its utmost to make sure there is enough manpower. At present, over 7,000 troops, police, fire fighters and local officials have been mobilized for rehabilitation projects. That is not enough. We can also learn from Japan, which has created a special emergency relief system to help the rapidly growing elderly population, many of whom have been left to their own devices amid the trend toward nuclear families.
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