Oil Clean-up

Yesterday morning, Dad and Gabe left the house at 6:30 a.m. to go help with the clean-up work on an oil spill near Mokpo.They went along with several bus loads of volunteers from Global Mission Church. On December 4th (a stormy day), a Korean barge broke loose from its tugboat and slammed into the side of a Hong Kong supertanker that was carrying 260,000 tons of crude oil. Tens of thousands of Koreans have volunteered to help with the clean-up effort, but it is estimated to take 3-5 years until complete recovery.

Dad and Gabe (along with a father and son from our co-op) spent the day scrubbing the rocks by hand. Before setting out, they all donned white jump suits, several pairs of gloves, and rubber boots. Gabe said it was freezing cold, and the work was tedious as each individual rock had to be scrubbed and wiped.

Here are some of the pictures Gabe took.

Hundreds of volunteers prepare to head for the beaches.


The oil has covered the rocks here; other places it washed into the sand.
Equipment for clean-up

Dad and Mr. Cho hand-scrub the rocks