Local governments under fire for needless emergency warnings
The Pohang earthquake disaster destroyed part of a brick-walled apartment building in the city, damaging a nearby vehicle. / Korea Times file
By Ko Dong-hwan
These text alerts from Korea Meteorological Administration on Nov. 19 and 20, 2017, when a series of strong earthquakes rattled Pohang, warned receivers to mind their safety as minor quakes of magnitude 3.7 and 3.8 surrounding the disaster that peaked at 5.4 occurred 9-11 kilometers north of the city. / Korea Times file
Citizens are angry at certain local governments that have sent out text emergency warnings when there were no emergencies.
Such warnings are sent to people in affected areas at times of major natural disasters like earthquakes, flooding or gales, to warn of the grave situation.
But on April 16, Daegu sent such a message to its 2.5 million residents after lowering the city's air pollution level from “warning” to “watch-out.”
In a city prone to earthquakes, residents tend to think of disaster when such a warning is given.
But the pollution-level “warning” was sent out three times between 5:17 a.m. and 5:21 a.m.
On May 3, the city sent another emergency text, warning of strong wind gusts. Three days later, a text warning was sent saying that a traffic lane closure has been lifted.
For those who fear major disasters that could threaten their lives, why these messages were sent is a mystery.
People expect the worse when they receive such text warnings such as in November 2017 when a series of earthquakes in Pohang ― the biggest with a magnitude of 5.4.
People in Andong in North Gyeongsang Province were dumbfounded on April 14 when they received an emergency text message about a minor fire accident at a food waste facility.
The warning was sent twice between 12:14 and 12:33 p.m., even after a local crew had almost extinguished the fire, in which nobody died.
The New York Times criticized such nerve-wrecking text alerts during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics early this year. The messages in Korean were not informative to foreigners and the alerts were “a mystifying source of panic, confusion or plain annoyance.”
The report from Feb. 14 said the alerts went off at least 14 times throughout the week, with Gangneung Olympic Park experiencing eight separate alerts in a day.
The seemingly senseless alerts come after Ministry of the Interior and Safety approved local governments to “push the button” to inform citizens of “domestic natural disasters and other types of disaster that need imminent defensive solutions “more promptly.”