To prevent car flood damage caused by summer nuisances such as torrential downpours and typhoons, the Korea Insurance Development Institute joined hands with the non-life insurance industry.
According to the Korea Insurance Development Institute (President Heo Chang-eon) on the 24th, from 2021 to 2025 over five years, policyholders filed a total of 35,011 flood-damage claims under auto insurance. In particular, 33,490 cases, or 95.7%, occurred intensively between July and October.
Last year, 7,050 car flood incidents—90.8% of the entire year's damage—were concentrated in just 10 days due to torrential rains. As recent rainfall patterns mostly consist of localized downpours that drench specific areas in a short time, prompt pre-evacuation guidance has become more important than anything else.
Accordingly, starting in the summer of 2024, the Korea Insurance Development Institute has been operating an Emergency Evacuation Alert Service in cooperation with non-life insurers, local governments, and police. In this system, field personnel patrolling flood-prone areas (about 2,500 from insurers, local governments, and police) enter the license plate numbers of cars parked in danger zones into the network, and an evacuation guidance message (SMS) is sent to the owner immediately. In fact, through this service last year, evacuation guidance was delivered to 2,802 vehicles exposed to risk, and all but nine of them moved safely to secure areas.
However, because of the recent surge in financial fraud, such disaster alerts may be mistaken for spam or voice phishing and ignored, so car owners should be cautious. Also, when receiving a KakaoTalk Alert Talk message, they should check whether the Kakao verification badge is attached next to the official channel name "Korea Insurance Development Institute Auto Emergency Evacuation Alimi." Above all, since these notices are sent for the public good, they do not include any internet address (URL) consolidation or any L.I.N.C to install an application (app), so recipients can check them with confidence.
Heo Chang-eon, president of the Korea Insurance Development Institute, said, "With abnormal climate conditions continuing this year, we expect a great deal of flood damage from localized torrential downpours. We hope the institute's Emergency Evacuation Alert Service will help keep people's precious lives and property safe."