[Anchor]

Over the weekend, volunteers continued to visit Geoje and Tongyeong in South Gyeongsang Province, which suffered heavy damage from record-breaking torrential downpours. However, with intense heat waves following right after the heavy rain, concerns are growing over the spread of infectious diseases.

KNN reporter Kim Min-sung has the story.

[Reporter]

A sea squirt hatchery in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, is completely filled with mud.

A week after the extreme downpour, the restoration work seems endless no matter how much is done.

[Moon Kyung-joo / Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: If it weren't for the landslide, we wouldn't have suffered this kind of damage. Because the entrance of the waterway was blocked and trees fell, all the mud overflowed.]

Over the weekend, some 3,000 volunteers gathered from various regions in South Gyeongsang Province.

Voluntary fire department members shovel mud into basins and haul it outside.

Repeated labor quickly drenches their bodies in sweat.

[Kang Moon-ja & Ryu Jae-sik / Jingyo Voluntary Fire Department, Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province: Since everything has to be done manually and it is so hot inside. (We also went through a lot of hardships from fires and floods last year, so we hope this can be even a small help.)]

Recovery efforts are not yet complete in the downtown areas either.

People wearing rubber boots lined up in front of an apartment basement parking lot.

At the apartment complex hit by flooding, residents have gathered to pump out the water pooled in the basement parking lot.

In the sweltering weather, worries are also rising over the spread of infectious diseases such as typhoid fever and malaria.

Disinfection vehicles drive through various parts of the city, spraying disinfectants on household items piled up along the streets.

[Lee Byung-seop / Official, Geoje Public Health Center: Rainwater, domestic sewage, and wastewater from various septic tanks might be mixed together. Because the weather is getting extremely hot, mosquitoes and flies can easily breed in large numbers.]

Currently, the emergency recovery rate in Geoje and Tongyeong stands at around 70%.

As more damages continue to be identified across various areas the further recovery progresses, calls are growing louder to designate additional special disaster zones.

(Video by: Kim Taeyong KNN, Video Editing by: Heejin KNN)

KNN Kim Min-sung