Torrential Rain In South Korea

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SEOUL, South Korea — Mudslides triggered by torrential rain crushed mountainside houses and tourist facilities in South Korea on Wednesday, killing at least 32 people, police said.

At a resort village in Chuncheon, 60 miles east of Seoul, university students running a volunteer summer camp for local children were asleep when a landslide engulfed their lodgings around midnight on Tuesday. Most of the 13 people found dead in the mud were university students, Chuncheon police said. Police rescued 20 others alive from the muddy rubble that engulfed several small motels, homes and restaurants. In southern Seoul, 16 people were found dead after the mudslide slammed into a hillside residential area and apartment buildings, the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

Three more people died in flooding in Gwangju south of Seoul. Around the country, at least 10 people were, the agency said.On-and-off rains have soaked much of the country for the past month. Since late Tuesday, up to 16 inches of rain accompanied by thunder hit Seoul and elsewhere. On Wednesday morning, commuters found roads blocked by mudslides. Large stretches of Seoul boulevards turned into brown pools, with the roofs of abandoned cars peaking out. In the capital, three people were missing after they were swept away in flash floods.

"I heard this terrible rumble," the national news agency Yonhap quoted a 57-year-old survivor of the Chuncheon mudslide as saying. "I woke up others and we rushed out. In a slit second, our motel was under the mud." He added: "I heard university students yelling ‘Help me!’ and saw some of them crawling out, coated in mud."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/world/asia/28korea.html#h[]

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The total is now up to 41 according to some sources:

SEOUL, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Flash floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain have left 41 people dead and 12 missing in South Korea as of Thursday morning, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

At least 15 people were killed after a wave of mudslide engulfed residential areas at the foot of Mount Umyeon in southern Seoul on Wednesday. The death toll from a landslide in Chuncheon, about 110 kilometers northeast of Seoul, stood at 13. Most of the victims were college students who visited the area for volunteer work. A plant collapsed in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, leaving three workers dead and two others seriously injured. Another eight people died and hundreds evacuated as Gonjiam Stream in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, flooded.

Some bridges over the main Han River, which runs through the center of Seoul, were closed. Heavy rain has also caused rivers to burst their banks, disrupted travel and triggered power outages. Police declared a state of special emergency as streets, subway stations, underpasses and residential districts were flooded throughout the capital. The military also dispatched 1,500 soldiers to conduct rescues and help clear roads.

The Korean Meteorological Administration said Seoul received 301.5 millimeters of rain on Wednesday alone, the largest amount of rainfall reported for a day in July. The national weather agency forecast more downpours until Friday, with expected rainfall of up to 250 mm until later Thursday in some areas in Seoul and nearby regions.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/28/c_131015199.htm

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The Korean peninsula is being drenched by one of the worst rainstorms in a century. Landslides and other weather-related incidents have left at least 48 people dead in South Korea, including 10 college students who were volunteer teachers at a rural elementary school. The students were sleeping in a guest house which was buried by a landslide.

Authorities say, in southern Seoul, at least 15 people died when a landslide from Mount Umyeon slammed into dozens of homes at the foot of a mountain. Torrential rainfall, which began Tuesday and is forecast to continue through Friday, is taking its toll on the Korean peninsula but there is little information coming from North Korea on the extent of any casualties or damage there. In addition to triggering fatal landslides, the rains have turned highways into canals, submerging cars and buses at major intersections in Seoul. Portions of two major highways parallel to the Han River in the city of 10 million people were closed because of high water.

In some of the South Korean capital’s fanciest neighborhoods, south of the river, hundreds of homes, business and subway stations were flooded. The heavy downpours are also blamed for disrupting electricity and Internet services in some of those neighbourhoods. South Korea’s agriculture ministry says some rice and vegetable farms in two provinces have been destroyed.

The country’s National Emergency Management Agency says relief supplies have quickly been given to victims but it will take some time yet for crews to remove water, sand and mud from flood-damaged buildings. Agency spokesman Kim Jong-sun says the situation is still precarious and advises people to be very cautious even after the showers subside. Kim says the ground in Seoul and surrounding provinces is saturated because of the heavy rain so people should avoid construction sites and other open flooded areas, such as parking lots, where there is a possibility of electrocution.

South Korea’s military is warning of the danger of displaced land mines in a residential neighborhood. The mines were originally buried near an air defense artillery unit on a mountain in the capital. South Korean Meteorological Administration meteorologist Lee Hyun-gyu says Seoul has been deluged by up to 60 millimeters of rain per hour - a record amount.Lee says more than 300 millimeters of rain fell on Seoul just on Wednesday.

That is the largest amount of daily precipitation ever recorded during a July day in the capital and the third wettest day since records began being kept in 1907.

Seoul has been drenched with more than 530 millimeters of rain since Tuesday, with an additional 150 millimeters predicted to hit the city through Friday. Meteorologists blame the heavy downpour on an unstable atmosphere with a mix of moist and dry air clashing over the Korean peninsula amid congested airflow. They predict that by the time the skies clear, more than 600 millimeters of rain will have fallen in some areas.

The picture is more opaque from North Korea with meteorologists in Seoul saying some areas of the North are also experiencing heavy rainfall. But the state-run media in the communist North has not yet reported on its severity, as it did after flooding in the middle of last month. Following an emergency request on Monday from North Korea to United Nations' organizations, the International Committee for the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the following day, sent 600 kits containing bottles of water, utensils, blankets and tarps to the country's North Hwanghae province.

The Red Cross says an additional 2,460 kits containing soap, toilet paper, towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste and water purification tablets will also be sent to South Hwanghae province. Those provinces were apparently hard hit by last month's flooding.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Century-Worst-Deluge-Kills-Dozens-in-South-Korea-126310463.html

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