Property damage due to rains in SKorea estimated at 842mn USD

Torrential rains that lashed South Korea from late July to early August have caused property damage estimated at over 1 trillion won ($842 million), the worst in 14 years, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The Ministry said the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters completed assessing total economic losses from heavy rains that hit the country from July 28-August 11, during a meeting held on Friday, reports Yonhap news Agency.

This marks the worst damage from storms and flooding in the country since 2006, when it suffered 1.834 trillion won in property damage from typhoon Ewiniar.

Three typhoons -- Olga (1999), Rusa (2002), Maemi (2003) -- have previously caused damage estimated at over 1 trillion won.

"Normally, the restoration fund is set at around 2.5 times to up to triple the amount of financial loss, but (the government) has decided to support a bit more to fundamentally resolve causes behind the suffering through improvement and restoration," the Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

It said the tally excluded heavy downpours that hit Busan and its adjacent cities on July 23-25 because damage wasn't big enough to require support from the state coffers.

The damage from the 9th and 10th typhoons of this summer, Maysak and Haishen, will be assessed and settled as well, the Ministry added.