Seoul (TDI): Four people have died and almost 1300 have been evacuated over the past 3 days due to torrential rain pounding South Korea, leading to the destruction of infrastructure and property.
Two people died as they were trapped in cars on flooded roads, and another died in a basement under flood water in the central South Chungcheong province, and one person is reported to be missing, as per the safety ministry.Â
People have been advised by the authorities to stay away from riverbanks, steep slopes, and underground spaces, warning that the risk of landslides and flash floods remains high.
South Korea’s meteorological administration says that dry air from the north-west mixed with hot and humid air from the south formed especially large rain clouds. But forecasters are expecting high temperatures to return next week, with the possibility of a severe heatwave.
According to the safety ministry, some parts in the south, including the city of Gwangju, were hit by record precipitation of more than 400 millimeters (16 inches) in the past 24 hours as of early on Friday.
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As of yesterday, some parts of the South Chungcheong region further south of the capital had seen more than 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rain since Wednesday, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.
The fire agency officials said that a driver was also killed after a 10-metre-high (33 ft) roadside wall collapsed on top of a moving vehicle on Wednesday in Osan, some 44 kilometers (27 miles) south of Seoul.
Lee Jae Myung, President of South Korea, who has been very vocal about the government’s role in disaster prevention and response, said that while natural disasters were hard to prevent, more can be done to lessen the damage and warn the public and provide them with safety measures.
“I see there were cases where casualties occurred because of a poor response when the situation was reasonably predictable,” he said at an emergency meeting on the weather on Friday, calling for all available resources to be deployed.
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