There was a big earthquake in Pohang on September 12th, 2017. The magnitude of this earthquake was 5.4, which was the second strongest earthquake since Korea started to observe earthquakes in 1978. Fortunately, there were not any dead people, but many buildings were cracked by the earthquake. Living in a cracked house can be dangerous, so many people are staying at the shelter until their houses are repaired. Although more than 50 days have passed since the earthquake, about 500 people are still staying at the shelter. The damage of this earthquake was much greater than the one that hit Gyeongju in September of 2016. Though the earthquake of Gyeongju was stronger than the earthquake of Pohang, the earthquake of Pohang made more damages.

According to geologists, it’s because the epicenter of the earthquake of Pohang was closer to the ground surface than the earthquake of Gyeongju. Though there are many buildings that are cracked, there aren’t enough people to repair all the cracked buildings in Pohang, so from December 20th to December 22nd, people from the fire extinguishing facilities of Pohang helped to repair the cracked buildings.

To repair all the cracked buildings, a lot of money is needed, so many people and organizations are donating money to Pohang. For example, Bonghwa-gun gave 1.2 million won to Pohang to help people. Kwon Min-gi who works in Bonghwa-gun said, “To help the victims of this earthquake, all officials in Pohang gathered money.” Also, the governor of Bonghwa, Park No-ook said, “I want victims to be able to return to their houses soon and I would like to say sorry for the earthquake to the people in Pohang.” Because of the earthquake of Pohang, the scholastic ability test was delayed. Moon Jae-in, the president of Korea, visited Pohang, and in one high school, he said to the students, “At first, the government hesitated to delay the exam. However, though students of Pohang can’t reach 1% of Korean students, we thought that the safety and equality of the students of Pohang were the most important, so we delayed the scholastic ability test. I was happy to see that most people agreed to the delay of the exam. Was the delay good?” For this question, many students answered that the delay of the exam was very good.

The damage of this earthquake reached about 15 billion won, this is five times more than the earthquake of Gyeongju. The restoration expenditure even reaches about 145 billion won. It is even ten times more than the earthquake of Gyeongju. Also, victims of this earthquake of Pohang are about 16 times more than the victims of the earthquake of Gyeongju. Because of these big damages, volunteers’ numbers have reached the tens of thousands. It is a very good scene to see that volunteers are helping victims who can not go back to their homes because of the earthquake. Also, the government decided to build temporary housing in farming villages. They can use these houses for 1 year, but they will be able to live longer if they want to. However, after a certain period has passed, they should pay all maintenance costs of those houses such as the electricity bill and the water bill. Also, many famous celebrities or big companies are donating money to Pohang. For example, Psy, the famous Korean singer, donated 100 million won, and Jang Dong-geon, the famous Korean actor, and his wife Go Soyeong who is a famous Korean actor, donated 100 million won, too. This earthquake must be a terrible disaster, but it was also a good chance to reconfirm our kindness.