Disaster Relief and Recovery, Affairs for the Vulnerable: The "Disaster Inequality" Revealed by the Downpour

Muddy Water Up to Right Below the Bridge: On August 10, the water level of Hangang River, muddy due to the downpour in the Seoul metropolitan area, rose, and a view from the 63 Sky Art Gallery in Yeouido, Seoul shows cars on Wonhyo Bridge slowly heading to work. Seong Dong-hun

“The workers on site were probably all thinking about reoperating the trains. We thought that was the natural thing to do. Still, we’re human. I was afraid making my way through the pouring rain to get to work.”

The record-breaking downpour that pounded central South Korea since August 8 was a disaster that A had never experienced during her years cleaning subway stations. A was assigned to the cleanup operation at the Line 9 Dongjak Station in Seoul, which was shut down due to the heavy rains. She met with the reporter on August 10 and said, “Sand and mud was piled up all over the platform. We had to dig out every grain of sand and then clean everything, but it was really tough since the elevators and escalators were not working.”

The situation was the same for B, a cleaning worker at Line 7 Isu Station. On August 8, parts of the ceiling collapsed in Isu Station after the rainwater poured in. This day, B said, “I saw the water pour down the staircase like a waterfall (on Aug. 8). I wanted to block the water, but I felt that I might get swept away.” She continued and said, “Still, at the time, I worked not aware of the danger. Later, when I looked back, I realized that there were a lot of electric installations in the flooded area.” The situation could have led to an electrical hazard. B said, “We’ve been working at high intensity for days, so my colleagues’ faces are all swollen, and they’ve got pain relief patches all over their body.”

Mud and garbage are not the only things that the record-breaking downpour left behind. It also plainly revealed the bare face of “disaster inequality” in South Korean society. Damages from the flood and the burden of recovery were not equal at all. In the latest disaster, it was the cleaners--whose average age is over sixty--who guarded the subway stations until the last moment. Yi Chan-bae, chair of the Democratic Women’s Union explained, “When a disaster occurs, workers feel their lives are at risk while they work,” and argued, “Instead of placing the responsibility on the workers for all duties on site, it would be reasonable for the government to provide a structured response system to properly respond to disasters.”

There were more places where people struggled to recover on their own. This morning at Namseong “Four Season” Market in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, beads of sweat dropped from the faces of gu office employees and military soldiers engaging in recovery operations. But the storeowners said, “Public service workers were far too late.” The merchants personally hired workers and asked relatives and acquaintances to help clean up the mess the previous day. Around 10:20 a.m., an announcement was broadcast through the speaker stating, “We will send more workers to storeowners who need them, among those who have suffered flood damages.” One storeowner complained, “What use are they now? We already hired people and cleaned everything up.”

The storeowners stood stupefied gazing at their stores ruined by the flood. Gim Gwang-hyeon (56), who has been running a singing room for four years in an alley in the Namseong Market, kept repeating the words, “It’s all over.”

He had kept the singing room by selling the apartment he lived in to make up for losses. His store was located in the basement floor of the building, and till this morning, the water inside his store came up higher than an adult man’s ankle.

Gim said, “We couldn’t do business because of COVID-19, and now just as we were about to finally do some business, we were hit by the rain.” He continued and said, “Now, there really is no solution. The machines were all ruined, and they say it’ll cost 150 million won to restore them. I don’t think I can run the place anymore.”

The storeowners agreed that it would be difficult to expect any compensation unless the area was declared a disaster area.

Experts point out the climate crisis as the fundamental cause of the extreme downpour and heatwave. The latest rain also plainly revealed the fact that damages from the climate crisis and climate disaster are concentrated on the vulnerable. Like the latest downpour, which caused great damages to people in poor housing, such as residents of semi-basement apartments, the heatwave also hits the socially vulnerable first.

Jo Hui-won, a secretary at the Tax and Fiscal Reform Center in the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said, “National finance is necessary to ensure a social safety net for the vulnerable, but the government keeps reducing state support claiming to improve fiscal soundness.” She argued, “If the state cannot protect the socially vulnerable from disasters, we have no choice but to ask why the state exists.”