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| Chunks of ice cover the Han River near Ilsan Bridge in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday. Days of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures have frozen roads all over the country and led to ice forming on the river. Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
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| People shovel snow off the roof of a greenhouse in Damyang County, South Jeolla Province, Saturday. Yonhap |
Unexpectedly, as much as 60 cumulative centimeters of snow fell throughout the last week, weighing down virtually everything outside, and the sub-zero temperatures have prevented the snow from melting quickly.
In North Jeolla Province, over 230 counts of property destruction have been reported due to snow that fell between Dec. 21 and 24. Most of the reports were concerning crushed agricultural greenhouses that couldn't withstand the weight of the snow. Others reported damage to livestock pens and building structures.
Farmers also reported frozen crops. Snow covered up the agricultural produce in cities and counties such as Jeongeup, Iksan, Imsil and Buan in North Jeolla Province.
Water pipes froze in homes across the country, cutting off the water supply and sometimes bursting. Over 340 households in Sunchang County in North Jeolla Province saw their water supply disrupted.
Gwangju, Korea's sixth-largest city, received a total of 40 centimeters of snow over the last week. Outside the metropolitan area in the surrounding province, crops and livestock farms reported damage worth 814 million won ($630,000).
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| A snowplow clears a road on Ulleung Island, Saturday. The island in the country's East Sea saw 35 centimeters of snow as blizzard-like conditions pummeled it for three days. Courtesy of Ulleung County Government |
Another major task for local governments was clearing the roads using either snowplows or calcium chloride. Seocheon County in South Chungcheong Province activated emergency funds worth 230 million won during the weekend to dispatch 64 snowplows throughout the region.
On Jeju Island, the heavy snow trapped several mountain hikers, who were later rescued by emergency workers. Two buses transporting teenage students collided due to the icy roads, which resulted in no fatalities, although 24 students who received minor injuries were sent to different hospitals.
In Seoul, the Han River was iced over, the country's state-run weather watchdog officially declared Sunday. It's the fourth time since 2000 that the surface froze so thickly that it obscured the river's undercurrents at a central depth.
The freezing of the Han River, however, has been happening later than decades before, according to yearly statistics. The Korean Meteorological Administration says that is due mainly to global warming and riverside development projects in the mid-1980s, which increased the volume of water in the river.
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