Some of the heaviest rain in decades has inundated South Korea’s capital region, turning Seoul’s streets into rivers clogged with cars and sending floods cascading into subway stations.
Key points:
- Some hourly rainfall totals were the worst in 80 years
- The floods knocked out power and submerged subway stations, stranding people
- Six people are missing, and there is still more rain
At least eight people have died — some from drowning in their homes — and seven more are missing, while more rain is forecast.
Deserted cars and buses littered the streets as the water receded Tuesday, as workers cleared uprooted trees, mud and debris with bulldozers and blocked broken roads and sidewalks.
Landslide warnings were issued in nearly 50 cities and towns, while 160 hiking trails in Seoul and the mountainous Gangwon Province were closed.
“Heavy rains are expected to continue for days … we must maintain our sense of alertness and respond with full effort,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said at the government’s emergency headquarters.
He directed officials’ attention to areas vulnerable to landslides or flooding and to reducing the hazards of already damaged roads and facilities to prevent more deaths.
Most subway services in Seoul returned to normal operation, but dozens of roads were closed due to safety concerns.
The military was ready to deploy troops to help with recovery efforts if requested by cities or regional governments, Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Hong-sik said.
Damaged buildings, evacuated homes
The rain started Monday morning and intensified into the evening.
At night, people waded through thigh-deep water on the streets of Gangnam, one of Seoul’s busiest business and entertainment districts, where cars and buses were stuck in mud-brown waters.
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Commuters evacuated as water cascaded down the steps of Isu subway station like a waterfall. In the nearby city of Seongnam, a rain-weakened slope collapsed on a university football field.
Rescuers were unable to reach three people, two sisters in their 40s and a 13-year-old girl, who called for help before drowning on Monday night in a basement house in Gwanak district, south of seoul
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Another woman drowned at her home in nearby Dongjak district, where a public worker died while clearing fallen trees, likely from electrocution.
Choi Seon-yeong, an official from the Dongjak district office, said it was not immediately clear whether the water was electrified due to a damaged power source or the equipment the man was using.
Three people were found dead in landslide debris and a collapsed bus station in the nearby cities of Gwangju and Hwaseong.
Four people went missing in Seocho district, south of Seoul.
Nearly 800 buildings in Seoul and nearby cities were damaged, while at least 790 people were forced to evacuate their homes, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Security said.
More rain to come
Heavy rain turned streets into rivers, submerging vehicles and overwhelming public transport systems. (AP: Hwang Kwang-mo, Yonhap)
The country’s weather agency maintained a heavy rain warning for the Seoul metropolitan area and nearby regions on Tuesday and said rainfall could reach 5 to 10 centimeters per hour in some areas.
He said another 10-35 cm of rain was expected in the capital region through Thursday.
More than 43 cm of rain was measured in Seoul’s worst-hit Dongjak district from Monday to midday Tuesday, the highest hourly rainfall recorded in Seoul since 1942.
The storms also hit North Korea, where authorities issued warnings of heavy rain in the south and west of the country.
The North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper described the rain as potentially “disastrous” and called for measures to protect farmland and prevent flooding in the Taedong River, which runs through the capital, Pyongyang.
ABC/Cables