South Korean Fix-It Spirit Helps Flood Victims

“Temporary shelter for flood victims,” declared the makeshift banner draped across the entrance of Kyong E Elementary School here northeast of Seoul.

But inside the gate, the school looks more like a giant store for wayward appliances, now that deadly floods have receded and a daunting cleanup has begun. The flooding last month left a trail of devastation that included more than 190 people dead, more than 100 missing and more than $1 billion in damage, a toll that will hamper South Korea’s efforts to revive its ailing economy.

While the primary school’s tidy classrooms serve as a temporary shelter for hundreds of locals who lost or are still digging out their homes, scores of mud-caked refrigerators, gas ranges, washing machines and heaters stand at attention between the goal posts on what once was a soccer field.

Dozens of vacuum cleaners, electric fans and rice cookers cover the auditorium’s stage, overlooking a sea of televisions, computers, microwave ovens, hair dryers, telephones, fax machines and other gadgets on the gymnasium floor below.

All these broken, muddied, water-logged appliances are being repaired, free of charge, by South Korea’s big electronics makers. Pickup and delivery included.

Why?

“It’s very simple,” Shin Ki Baik, manager of LG Electronics’ makeshift emergency repair center, explains matter-of-factly. “No. 1, they are our customers. No. 2, the whole country is helping the flood victims. And No. 3, we want to keep them as our loyal customers in the future.”

The repair campaigns offered by the country’s giant conglomerates that make the appliances--including Samsung, Daewoo and Rinnai--will go a long way toward helping their countrymen get back on their feet.

Such a gesture isn’t particularly surprising for South Korea. When foreign exchange reserves ran desperately low late last year and the International Monetary Fund undertook a bailout of the country’s economic system, citizens donated tons of gold baby rings to the government, raising $2 billion.

Over the past month, all four major news channels have been running phone-a-thons during regular programming, asking callers to dial a special phone number at 75 cents a call. The donation tally, shown on the lower part of the screen, is in perpetual motion, with more than $1 million raised for the relief efforts so far.

The volunteer spirit is helping to comfort those now struggling to rebuild their lives.

“We didn’t expect all this help,” said Choi Sun Ja, a young mother of two, as she folded once-filthy blankets, coats, shirts and children’s clothes that had emerged newly clean from an emergency laundry service on a military truck.

Though South Korea’s flooding this summer has been far less onerous than China’s, it nevertheless has exacted a heavy toll. Many people have returned to their homes, but about 700 are still living in shelters and about 1,800 others with friends or family, the government said. Flood waters washed away scores of bridges, roads, rice paddies and vegetable fields and racked up public property damage alone of at least $1 billion.

The devastation will only compound the nation’s grim economic problems. Some analysts estimate that the damage could take as much as 1% off the gross domestic product this year--not an easy loss amid a crippling recession. South Korea’s economy had previously been expected to contract by at least 4% this year.

Meanwhile, inflation is on the upswing: Vegetable prices in Seoul have doubled or tripled because of lost crops, and rice prices are rising. Seoul restaurant manager Kwon Seung Hak grimaces as he describes higher prices on the lettuce and cucumbers that accompany his grilled beef galbi specialty.

The heavy rains caught Uijongbu by surprise in the early hours of Aug. 5. Between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., 1 1/4 inches of rain fell on this city about an hour northeast of the capital by subway. The next hour dumped another 1 1/4 inches. But that was only the beginning.

Between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., about 4 inches fell, and by 6 a.m. another 4 inches had pounded the city.

“It wasn’t raining. It was like pouring water from a bucket,” says Lee Sang Soo, 62, eating hot soup, rice, vegetables and kimchi prepared at the shelter by the Cheil Jedang company, which had taken charge of serving food to the victims at the shelter.

The rivers and streams rose with a vengeance, causing mudslides, knocking out glass doors and windows and pushing some residents out into the current. One elderly woman died after getting caught under a submerged bridge. Some cars were crumpled to the size of power mowers by huge rocks and other debris. Dead pigs and cows floated by. Sixteen people in the city died, about 400 were injured, and one is still missing. Four U.S. servicemen, who had been camping out for a military exercise, also died.

Lee and his wife escaped from their first-floor apartment to the second floor of a nearby wedding hall, waiting for a day for the 5-foot-deep water to recede before escaping to the temporary shelter. Though not as heavy, the rains would continue for another 1 1/2 weeks.

“We saved nothing,” Lee says. When the couple returned to their mud-drenched house, they dug out their appliances. The refrigerator, telephone and washing machine were brought back to life by the appliance makers; only the vacuum cleaner couldn’t be fixed. In the first two weeks after the flood, the city collected more than 16,000 tons of garbage--more than 25% of its usual collection for an entire year.

One of the appliance doctors is Moon Pyong Cho, 37, normally a white-collar member of Samsung Business Group’s “global strategy team” at Seoul headquarters. This sweltering day, clad in a white Samsung T-shirt and shorts, he’s sitting on the steps taking apart vacuum cleaners. “I have no special skill, so all I can do is dismantle,” he says. Others will perform the next steps.

Samsung has been dispatching a mix of executives and repair specialists each day to the special relief centers. Once the appliances arrive at the site and the mud is hosed off, they are disassembled, the interiors are washed and air-sprayed to stave off rust, and the repairs begin. All parts are replaced free.

Because this area is poor, some appliances are decades old and spare parts aren’t available.

“Since victims are mostly poor families, we try to go beyond what we would normally do to repair an appliance,” says Shin, the LG Electronics center manager. The LG employees, who work at the school from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., look like giants as they sit at the tiny knee-high desks designed for primary pupils while they air-spray television circuit boards and screw the televisions back together.

So far at this shelter, just one person has tried to falsely pass off an apparently long-broken appliance as a flood casualty, the managers say. He was turned away.

One victim, Lee Soon Ok, 47, clad in donated clothing, said her family of four “escaped with nothing but our bodies.” Her small food store also was flooded out. Still, she was cheered when she learned that all her appliances--a washing machine, refrigerator, rice machine, vacuum, electric fan, “everything”--had been repaired.

“I’m very thankful. They’re like brand new--far better than I expected,” she said.

There have been some economic benefits from the floods. Before, about 90% of construction equipment in the city was idle because of the sour economy. Now, 100% of the construction vehicles are in operation, carting away huge mounds of branches, smelly, soaked upholstery, and the garbage that is piled high in the streets.

Victims will need to replace their ruined fixtures, boosting domestic consumption, one of the most important stimulants for the economy. Unemployed construction workers, besides helping with the cleanup, should find it easier to get jobs rebuilding washed-out roads and bridges. And demand for construction materials and tools should stimulate local sales.

Would it be better for these appliance makers--and maybe even for the entire economy--if residents had to buy new models and pump more money into the system?

“Of course,” answers Moon, the Samsung global-strategy team member. “But we can’t be that coldblooded. These are Samsung’s customers. They need our help.”

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.