Incheon's Yeongjong-gu District (Mayor Son Hwa-jeong) began operating a dedicated report center on Aug. 3 to help residents and small business owners affected by a large-scale power outage that occurred on July 13 seek relief.
 [The Korean Today] Yeongjong-gu Mayor Son Hwa-jeong attending power outage briefing session © Reporter Kim Mi-hee |
The newly opened "Power Outage Damage Report Center" is an administrative support measure the district devised on its own to assist residents and small business owners who suffered property losses or business damage from the outage but find it difficult to individually report their damage to the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
Mayor Son Hwa-jeong reportedly ordered the establishment of the report center after judging that, since it is expected to take considerable time for KEPCO to determine the cause of the accident and review compensation, the district needed to step in and actively help affected residents seek relief.
The report center will operate for about a month, until Aug. 28, at four locations: the Yeongjong-gu Office's Economic Support Division (5th floor, 201 Haneuljungang-ro) and the administrative welfare centers of Yeongjong-dong, Yeongjong 1-dong and Yeongjong 2-dong.
The center's role is to accept damage reports from residents and small business owners on their behalf and forward them to KEPCO. Any resident or small business owner who suffered direct property losses or business damage from the outage may visit in person with identification to file a report. However, since reports made by phone cannot go through the consent-for-personal-information-use and identity-verification procedures required for administrative proxy filing, residents who are unable to visit in person must report directly to KEPCO's customer center (☎123) or KEPCO's Yeongjong branch office (☎032-880-7222).
 [The Korean Today] Inspection of Incheon CC-Jungsan power line construction site © Reporter Kim Mi-hee |
The district plans to manage the status of reports received through daily reports and promptly forward them to the Korea Electric Power Corporation to urge a swift review of compensation.
Mayor Son Hwa-jeong said, "Through this power outage damage report center, we will carry out meticulous, field-oriented administration so that residents do not suffer alone due to complicated and difficult procedures or get left out of fair compensation." She added, "Beyond simply accepting reports on residents' behalf, Yeongjong-gu will always stand on the side of residents and look after their daily lives, so that we can ease their inconvenience even a little and let them genuinely feel the effectiveness of our administration."
Earlier, on July 13, the day the outage occurred, Mayor Son ordered the activation of the disaster and safety situation room to minimize initial damage, and reportedly patrolled areas where power had not yet been restored late into the night, personally listening to the difficulties faced by residents and small business owners. She then requested KEPCO to hold a "resident briefing session on the power outage accident," which took place on July 22, and on July 29 visited the site office of the "Incheon CC-Jungsan power line construction project," regarded as the fundamental measure for expanding Yeongjong's power grid, to personally check on the progress of the construction.
[ Reporter Kim Mi-hee: incheonsouth@thekoreantoday.com ]
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