Heavy snowfall causes recovery challenges

[Anchor]

The aftermath of the record-breaking heavy snowfall continues.

With the heavy snow, known as 'wet snow,' falling, collapse accidents have been occurring in various places.

Amidst the human casualties, there are concerns about secondary collapse accidents due to the accumulated snow.

Reporter Jeong Jin-kyu has the details.

[Report]

A village where more than 30cm of heavy snow has fallen in two days.

A warehouse made of sandwich panels could not withstand the weight of the snow and completely collapsed.

A man in his 70s died after being buried under the debris.

[Han Jin-cheol/Disaster Response Division, Chungbuk Eumseong Fire Station: "About 20cm of snow had accumulated on top of the collapsed sandwich panels."]

A ginseng greenhouse covering over 1,500㎡ also collapsed helplessly.

To salvage even one more root, the facility must be removed, but access is difficult due to the piled-up snow.

[Lee Kyung-hee/Ginseng farmer: "It has completely collapsed. If we don't remove it immediately (it will be difficult to harvest)."]

Nearby flower farms are in a similar situation.

The greenhouses have sagged, causing damages worth millions, but they cannot even think about recovery.

[Han Sang-ryeol/Flower farmer: "It's overwhelming. I don't know if recovery is possible, and we don't have the funds to recover it."]

Not only greenhouses but also livestock facilities like these have collapsed under the weight of the snow.

In Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, power restoration work due to the heavy snowfall has been delayed, leaving hundreds of households in the cold for two days.

[Mok Gyeong-ja/Cheongil-myeon, Hoengseong-gun, Gangwon Province: "I couldn't sleep because it was cold. I kept curling up and stretching out, I stayed up all night."]

With concerns about secondary collapse accidents due to the accumulated weight of the snow, recovery efforts are facing difficulties.

This is KBS News, Jeong Jin-kyu.