Jongno-gu has activated a full-scale emergency response to protect residents' lives and health after authorities issued a "critical alert" — the highest level of the heatwave crisis warning system.
District Mayor Yoo Chan-jong chaired an emergency meeting Wednesday, bringing together the Safety City Division and other departments to share response plans and coordination tasks. A total of 450 personnel have been deployed on emergency duty, centered on the Heatwave Integrated Support Center operations room.
The district sends daily disaster safety text messages at 10 a.m. while simultaneously operating 115 cooling shelters, providing safe lodging support for vulnerable residents and expanding heat-reduction facilities.
The cooling shelters will remain open through Sept. 30 at locations woven into residents' daily routines — the district office, community service centers, libraries, senior centers, welfare centers, a rooftop-room counseling office, sports facilities and financial institutions. Among these, 45 senior centers are open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., serving as refuges for elderly residents most at risk from the heat.
With the special advisory in effect, operations have been tightened further. The shelter at the district office is open around the clock, while community service center shelters now stay open until 9 p.m. on weekdays. Additional hours on weekends and public holidays — noon to 6 p.m. — ensure residents with nowhere to go can escape the heat at any time. This year, nine district-run libraries have been newly designated as shelters to improve accessibility.
During July and August, when heat-related harm peaks, the district operates "heatwave safe lodging" for low-income and housing-vulnerable elderly households. Working with Dongdaemun Hotel under a partnership agreement, the district provides lodging vouchers to guide elderly residents living in rooftop rooms, gosiwon study-rooms and cramped single-room dwellings into air-conditioned hotel rooms. Each person may stay up to 10 nights, offering a secure refuge for neighbors who fall outside the regular care network.
A "nighttime heat shelter" and a "cool cafe for rooftop-room residents" are also in operation. Two private bathhouses in the district — including Hyundai Oksau Sauna in Changsin-dong — have been designated as shelters, providing 20 rooftop-room residents per day with bathing vouchers. The cool cafe operates as a mobile coffee truck: it opened Tuesday in front of the Donuimun-dong rooftop-room counseling office and opens Thursday at the Changsin-dong rooftop-room counseling office. Between the two locations, cold beverages will be provided to about 500 rooftop-room residents.
The district is also expanding heat-reduction infrastructure to cool the urban core. Shade structures have been installed at 91 locations so pedestrians waiting at crosswalks can escape direct sunlight even briefly. Cooling-fog mist systems, already in place at Marronnier Park last year, have been extended this year to the fountain plaza at Cheong Wa Dae's banquet hall. To ease the urban heat-island effect, eight water-spraying trucks have been deployed to clean 36.6 kilometers across four routes three to four times a day during peak heat hours — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The district is also spreading heatwave safety guidelines through social media and text alerts, urging residents to check weather conditions regularly, drink water frequently even without feeling thirsty, and avoid outdoor activities during the hottest part of the day.
"Record-breaking heatwaves threaten residents' daily lives every year, so we are building a seamless defense network of shelters, safe lodging and heat-reduction facilities," District Mayor Yoo said. "We will keep a close eye on conditions on the ground to ensure elderly and other vulnerable residents get through this summer safely, and we will carry out every response measure residents can actually feel — without fail."
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