The death toll from the devastating typhoon that swept through South Korea last weekend rose to 113 on Thursday with 14 others unaccounted for, officials said.
Damage estimates snowballed to $4-billion dollars from earlier estimates of $1-billion, according to the Central Anti-Disaster Headquarters in Seoul.
”The damage from Typhoon Maemi turned out to be far worse than what we thought,” President Roh Moo-Hyun said at a meeting with his top secretaries.
About 5 000 houses were destroyed and another 13 000 homes were damaged while 34 000ha of farmland were inundated and hundreds of roads and bridges were damaged.
The government has promised to disburse more than $1-billion for recovery efforts. — Sapa-AFP