The Korean peninsula is experiencing heavy rains that could last for several more days. In North Korea, the Taedong River, which crosses Pyongyang, overflowed, causing floods described as “disastrous” by the daily Rodong Sinmun, and authorities are scrambling to avoid damage to farmland. 200 kilometers to the south, on the other side of the demilitarized zone (the DMZ, which separates the two Koreas), Seoul experienced 525 millimeters of precipitation between Monday August 8 and Wednesday August 10, unheard of in a hundred and fifteen years. They caused such damage that the president, Yoon Seok-youl, apologized “for the dramas experienced”. And caution prevails, new showers being feared until Friday.
The death toll in the South Korean capital and its surroundings is at least nine dead and seven missing. The city presents a spectacle of desolation, with the main streets clogged with abandoned vehicles and many neighborhoods flooded.
The night of August 8 to 9, these streets had turned into real waterways, especially in the south of the city, around the trendy Gangnam district. Several metro stations were flooded and traffic was suspended on several train and metro lines. Eighty roads were closed, as well as underground routes. Access to 156 of the very popular hiking routes in the five national parks, including that of Mount Bukhan, north of Seoul, remains prohibited. Eight ferry lines have interrupted their services.
Of the eight people who died, two women and a little girl drowned in a half-buried apartment in the west of the capital. The accommodation would have been submerged within seconds. In addition, 570 people had to take refuge in schools and other public establishments.
During an emergency meeting, President Yoon demanded that everything be done to minimize the damage caused by the rains. “They have been going on for several days, we must remain mobilized and vigilant”said the leader, who canceled a trip to the center of the country and went to the site where the two women and the little girl were killed.
The Interior Ministry has raised the flood alert to its highest level. The Korea Forest Service has issued landslide warnings in 47 cities and counties, in Seoul as well as in central and eastern parts of the country.
The Dongjak weather station, located in the south of the capital, recorded 381.5mm of rain on August 8, beating the daily record of 354.7mm set in August 1920 and the highest level since the establishment , in Korea, in 1907, of the first modern system for recording meteorological data.
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