(Seoul) Heavy rains flooded the South Korean capital region, turning the streets of Seoul’s affluent Gangnam neighborhood into rivers, leaving vehicles and public transportation systems overwhelmed. At least seven people have been killed and six others are missing.
Posted yesterday at 11:37 p.m.
People were slowly returning to work on Tuesday morning after emergency crews worked through the night to clean up much of the damage. But there were concerns about further damage, as torrential rains were forecast for a second consecutive day.
Most subway services in the Seoul metropolitan area resumed normal operations, but about 80 routes and dozens of riverside parking lots remained closed for safety reasons.
President Yoon Suk Yeol called on public employers and private companies to adjust their commuting times and insisted that major measures be taken to restore damaged facilities and evacuate people from dangerous areas in order to prevent further deaths.
The rain started Monday morning and intensified through the evening. Nearly 800 buildings in Seoul and nearby cities were damaged while more than 400 people were forced to evacuate their homes, the Interior and Security Ministry said.
People were seen wading through thigh-deep water on Monday evening in streets near Gangnam subway station, one of Seoul’s busiest business and entertainment districts, where cars , taxis and buses were stuck in muddy waters. Commuters were evacuated as water cascaded down the stairs of Isu metro station. In nearby Seongnam, a rain-weakened hill collapsed onto a college soccer field.
Rescuers failed to save three people who called for help before drowning in the basement of a house in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, on Monday night. 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 with the Dongjak district office, said it was not immediately clear whether the water was electrified due to a damaged power source or equipment that the man was using.
Two people were found dead in the rubble of a collapsed bus station and a landslide in the nearby city of Gwangju.
The country’s meteorological agency on Tuesday maintained a heavy rain warning for the Seoul metropolitan area and neighboring areas. She said rainfall could reach five to 10 centimeters per hour in some areas.
More than 42 centimeters of rain were measured in Seoul’s hardest-hit Dongjak district between 9 a.m. Monday and Tuesday morning. Rainfall per hour in this area exceeded 14 centimeters at one point Monday evening, which was the heaviest hourly downpour measured in Seoul since 1942.
Thunderstorms also hit North Korea, where authorities issued heavy rain warnings for the south and west of the country. North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper described the rain as potentially “disastrous” and called for measures to protect farmland and prevent flooding on the Taedong River, which runs through the capital, Pyongyang.