Ron Brackett
The Korea Meteorological Administration said the heavy rains are likely to persist through the weekend, with central areas of South Korea potentially seeing up to a foot of rain, weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce said. Seoul could get another 6 inches of rain.
(WATCH: SOS Message Saves Men Marooned on Island)
On Thursday, five rescue workers were swept over a dam in the city of Chuncheon in Gangwon Province, northeast of Seoul, when they were trying to free another boat snagged on a wire, Reuters reported. The boats overturned, spilling eight people into the fast-moving water. One person died, two were rescued and the other five were missing, the Associated Press reported.
Firefighters rescued four passengers and the driver of a bus caught in a flash flood Thursday in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, the Korea Times reported.
A total of 16 people were missing and at least 18 had died in the flooding as of 5 p.m. Thursday, the Korea Herald reported, citing figures from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.
Three members of a family from New Zealand were found dead Monday after a landslide hit their vacation cottage in Gyeonggi Province, northeast of Seoul, according to a separate Reuters report.
Three workers died when a landslide hit their factory, Reuters said. Nearly 400 landslides have been reported.
Residents scrape mud away from a damaged house after flooding in Cheorwon, South Korea, on Thursday, August 6, 2020. Torrential rains continuously pounded South Korea on Thursday, prompting authorities to close parts of highways and issue a rare flood alert near a key river bridge in Seoul."There isn't a single plate ... It's an empty house. All my pots and garlic jars have been swept away," 83-year-old Kwon Cha-soon told Reuters after she lost everything when a landslide struck her home in the city of Anseong, in Gyeonggi.
Major highways in Seoul closed because of flooding, much of it from the overflowing Han River.
More than 4,900 people were forced out of their homes in the affected areas, according to the Korea Herald. At least 1,400 residential buildings were flooded, and 1,055 barns and storage facilities were damaged. Over 31 square miles of farmland was flooded.
Finding shelter for everyone who needs it has been made more difficult by the coronavirus pandemic.
In Anseong, officials put up tents to keep people separated inside the school being used as a shelter. Evacuees had their temperatures checked and were screened for any COVID-19 symptoms.
"I was a bit concerned about the coronavirus, but there is no alternative given the situation," Kim Soo-goon, whose home was hit by a landslide, told Reuters.
South Korea has reported 14,500 coronavirus cases, with 302 deaths.
In North Korea, state media has also warned of "torrential" rain, possible flooding and high winds and waves, but the secretive regime offered no details.
Choi Yong-ho, a research fellow at the Korea Rural Economic Institute in Seoul, told Reuters the rain appears to be falling on some of the major rice-growing areas of North Korea.
"This flooding will have a negative impact for North Korea's food supply," he said.
This year's monsoon has caused deadly flooding that has affected millions of people across South and East Asia. Torrential rains in China killed more than 140 people in July, and at least 82 people have died in flooding in Japan. More than 160 people have been killed in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Low-pressure systems associated with this summer's monsoon have been unusually strong and stationary, according to a NASA blog post. This has allowed the systems to draw in more moisture from the Indian and Pacific oceans and dump it over the land.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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