[Editorial] Rain, rain, rain

Koreans will remember the summer of 2011 as having the heaviest rains in their life. The Korea Meteorological Administration’s observatories have recorded new records of precipitation per hour, the number of consecutive rainy days and other statistics.

People lost their lives in mudslides, in suddenly flooded rooms and swollen river waters. Disaster-relief authorities cannot correctly compile damage reports as downpours, moving from one province to another, destroyed houses, river banks, bridges, railways and roads. Rice and other crops sit dead in inundated paddy fields and poultry has been lost by the thousands at flooded farms. In coastal areas, fish farms have been damaged by the rush of fresh water from the sky and from the land.

Merciless rains wreaked havoc to mostly small factories in low-lying lands. Manufactured goods, raw materials and production and processing facilities were rendered useless and soaked in muddy water. Teary owners tell TV reporters that they do not know how to recover as they had already taken out heavy loans to build their factories.

Vegetable prices have tripled due to sharply reduced supply. Department stores are in emergency mode to secure fruit to make gift packages for the Chuseok holiday. Suffering most are street vendors in cities who have to pass day after day without plying their trade on drenched sidewalks. Merchants and caterers at summer places complain of few customers in recent weeks.

Economic authorities were quite conservative in estimating the damage at below 1 trillion won ($1 billion) by last week. In addition to direct damage to buildings, crops, automobiles and infrastructure facilities, total economic losses will soar when lost incomes and production are calculated. Farmers, small-time merchants and factory owners have nobody to turn to for help but the government.

The floods, resulting from unusual air streams clashing above the Korean Peninsula, are believed to be a phenomenon caused by global climate change. Coming after the earthquake and tsunami that swept the neighboring Japanese archipelago last spring, the public worries that the ceaseless heavy rains may not be exceptional calamities, but will inundate their homeland year after year.

Administration authorities are planning to release relief funds to flood victims but are rather slow to act. Local officials are urged to make accurate damage reports on communities, individual households, farms and factories and warehouses so that proper relief can be made swiftly from government reserve funds. Budget authorities and the National Assembly will have to make consultations to raise the level of disaster-relief funds significantly in next year’s budget outlays in anticipation of increased needs considering the apparent climate change on the peninsula.

Rain is causing similar and even worse damage to North Korea this summer. Because irrigation and other infrastructure is poor, the same precipitation can cause much worse damage north of the border. The (North) Korean Central News Agency is dispatching many pictures of the flooding and destruction of houses, farms and roads in different parts of the country. Particularly piteous are the scenes of residents, including aged women, manually digging dirt and carrying soil with primitive A-frames on their back during restoration work.

At those scenes, no dump truck or heavy equipment was seen. A lone small excavator was helping the work with its emblem covered with a piece of cloth. It was probably one donated by a South Korean firm some years ago. In the latest South-North Red Cross meeting at Panmunjeom early this month, the Northern representative specifically asked for construction equipment in addition to food and cement.

We can guess what the KCNA pictures of floods and the rudimentary scenes of restoration work meant. Seoul authorities are planning to send some 5 billion won ($5 million) worth of mainly daily necessities in September after taking necessary aid procedures. Emergency aid to the North of a somewhat bigger scale may be justifiable if we are to share relief materials.