Capital region to see additional 300 millimeters of rain until Friday

Onlookers at Paldang Dam in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, watch the dam discharging water to lower the rising depth of the Bukhan River in the province following Monday's heavy downpour, Tuesday. Yonhap

Rainfall leaves nine dead and seven missing

By Ko Dong-hwan

Record rainfall pounded most of the Seoul metropolitan region on Monday and Tuesday leaving nine people dead and seven others missing. The downpour flooded and destroyed roads and subway stations, triggered landslides, clogged underground water drainage systems, and forced the evacuations of people living in low-lying areas.

It was the highest amount of rainfall per hour witnessed in the capital region in 80 years, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the country's central weather monitoring organization. Seoul's Dongjak District was bombarded with the heaviest downpour in the city with 422 millimeters falling on Monday alone.

The amount of rain seen so far on Monday and Tuesday is almost equal to the volume the city sees on average in the entire month of July. Between 200 to 400 millimeters of rainfall also pummeled the cities of Yeoju, Gwangju and Yangpyeong County in Gyeonggi Province as well as Hoengseong and Hongcheon counties in Gangwon Province on the same day.

Damage was visibly serious in the southern Seoul districts of Dongjak, Seocho and Gangnam, where the terrain is lower than the rest of the city. On Tuesday morning, when the rain briefly stopped for a few hours, floods of rainwater on the roads in the areas drained, revealing empty vehicles ditched and strewn over the streets and curbs. Drivers stranded by the flooding the previous day had to leave their cars behind and evacuate. Some of the wrecked vehicles blocked the paths of cars and buses on Tuesday morning, causing traffic jams.

Ditched cars following Monday's heavy downpour are strewn over the road and swept to the roadside in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Yonhap

Dramatic scenes of the wreckage were photographed and described in text messages and shared online. Some said they had to walk home after leaving their cars behind on flooded roads. Others said they had witnessed people getting out of their flooded cars on the road to start searching for alternative ways to evacuate.

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An employee at the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office in Seocho District, who was on night duty on Monday, reportedly said he had been working there for 30 years but never saw a flood so heavy before.

Police said Tuesday morning that tow trucks started clearing roads littered with flooded vehicles.

A section of the Yongin-Seoul Highway in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, near the entrance of Hasanun Tunnel is closed after a landslide crushed the road with rocks, destroying a road sign, Tuesday. Yonhap

The unprecedented amount of continuous rainfall impacted underground metro stations as well. The ceiling over a platform in Isu Station in Dongjak District collapsed, dropping a torrent of rain and ceiling panels onto the platform. The underground levels of several other metro stations in the city were also flooded, causing trains in operation to pass the inundated stations and forcing people inside the stations to look for other forms of transportation.

Fatal accidents followed the disaster. An SUV carrying three passengers along a mountainous highway in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, was swallowed by a sudden landslide. Rescuers found the driver dead at the scene and transported the others who survived to a hospital. In another southern Seoul district, Gwanak, three family members, one of whom was developmentally disabled, living in a semi-basement flat, became stranded when it became flooded via a sinkhole on an adjacent road on Monday evening. The family called emergency rescuers but all died before they arrived at the scene. A 60-something employee from Dongjak District Office also died while checking a fallen tree on a street due to the heavy rain. Police concluded that he had been electrocuted to death.

Vehicles pack a section of Olympic Highway near Banpo Bridge in Tuesday morning at times well past the usual morning rush hour. Yonhap

Hundreds of local residents in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi evacuated their homes on Monday. A retaining wall in Incheon's Jung District collapsed, forcing 34 people from 12 households nearby to evacuate from their homes. Over 270 people from 165 households in Dongjak and the city of Gwangmyeong in Gyeonggi Province also fled to local community centers after escaping their flooded homes. Another 163 residents from 107 households in the capital region (Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province) were also displaced and had to stay in local schools and gymnasiums.

Bridges, highways and roads were paralyzed as the disaster created sink holes, submerging and sweeping them together with mounds of debris from trees, mud, rocks and other broken infrastructure materials. As of Tuesday morning, five sections of highways in Seoul were closed. Twenty-five sections of roads across Gyeonggi Province were also shut down.

The heavy rains are expected to continue throughout this week, according to weather forecasts, raising concerns of further impact throughout the country. The rain clouds are mostly concentrated above the southern Gyeonggi region, where at least 350 millimeters of more rain is expected until Thursday. The rest of the capital region will also see an additional 100 to 300 millimeters of rain until Friday.

People queue up to hail taxis in front of Seoul Station, where the metro service was still unavailable Tuesday morning after torrential rains forced the station to close on Monday. Yonhap

President Yoon Suk-yeol's first task on Tuesday was to check the country's central disaster monitoring and control center at Government Complex in Seoul, where he presided over an emergency meeting with the chiefs of related government departments. He ordered the closures of public roads in heavily impacted areas in advance to minimize victims. He also reminded rescue workers and local public servants to maintain safety during this emergency period. He also reminded them to preemptively evacuate residents in vulnerable regions with high risks of landslides.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo previously held another emergency meeting on Monday at the same place after the rains kept pounding down for almost the entire day. He raised the disaster control tower's warning levels from level 2 to level 3 and also increased the national flood damage level from "caution" to "serious."

A riverside park flanking the Han River under a viaduct in Seoul's eastern district of Gangdong is completely submerged, Tuesday, following torrential rains that continued from Monday. Yonhap