Designation of Special Snow Disaster Zones Declared as Early as Today

The government will designate some areas, including Chungchung Province, that were hit hard by last week`s heavy snowstorm as special disaster zones as early as today.

President Roh Moo-hyun convened a Cabinet meeting in the morning to tackle measures as soon as possible. The measures include designating special zones and mobilizing an ad hoc task force today to deal with the disaster.

The Home Affairs Ministry will host a task force meeting this morning to identify regions eligible to be classified as special disaster zones and propose to the president to declare the selection.

“Although it is not confirmed, the government is expected to declare the designation of special disaster zones tomorrow, should there be no major problem,” said a presidential secretary for public information at a briefing after the Cabinet meeting. He added that it was President Roh who directed relevant ministries to work on designating special disaster areas.

The government previously designated special disaster zones when the mighty Typhoon Rusa and Maemi hit the nation in August 2000 and last September respectively.

The National Disaster Prevention and Countermeasures Headquarters made a provisional estimation at 1 p.m. yesterday that 105 building units, 2,320ha of green houses, 5,651 units of livestock sheds, 64 fishing facilities such as fish farms, and 6,661 units of other individual property were damaged, causing 546.5 billion won of property loss.

Hyun-Doo Lee ruchi@donga.com