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Torrential rains batter swaths of southern Korea

Published: 07 May. 2023, 19:07 Updated: 07 May. 2023, 19:33

Families attend the Yanggu Gomchwi Festival in Gangwon on the Children's Day holiday Friday. [YONHAP]

Flights were canceled, subway stations and roads were flooded, and rocks and trees fell as heavy rains battered Korea on Friday and Saturday.

At least 20,000 passengers were grounded at Jeju International Island as most outbound and inbound flights were canceled from Thursday to Friday due to heavy rain and strong gusts of wind in the area.

Some 243 flights were canceled on Thursday and around 220 flights on Friday. Flights resumed on Saturday morning as wind shear advisories were lifted in the area as of 3 a.m.

All strong wind and heavy rain advisories across the country were lifted at 6 a.m. Saturday.

Jeju International Airport is crowded with passengers on Friday afternoon. [YONHAP]

Over 1,000 millimeters (39 inches) of rain fell on the Samgak Peak area on Jeju Island's Mount Halla between Wednesday and Friday. On Thursday, the city of Seogwipo on Jeju Island saw an all-time high daily amount of rain in May at 287.8 millimeters.

The heavy downpour led to damage and accidents on Jeju Island from Thursday to Saturday. A car was submerged on a road in Seogwipo on Thursday. Firefighters had to drain rainwater that flooded a house and a building in the city on Friday, according to Jeju Fire Safety Headquarters.

As much as 300 millimeters fell in South Jeolla, flooding a subway station on Friday afternoon.

The platform of Gonghang Station in Gwangju was flooded, causing subway trains to bypass the station for about an hour on Friday from 5 p.m.

Some 770 households in Ilgok-dong in Gwangju were out of power for around two hours from 7 p.m. after a tree branch fell on a power line due to strong winds.

Around 175 hectares (432 acres) of rice paddies were flooded in Goheung County, Gangjin County and Boseong County in South Jeolla, while 525 hectares of farmland were damaged in the region.

A stream in Jeju on Friday [NEWS1]

The heavy rain that fell over the long weekend somewhat helped South Jeolla recover from several months of drought. Storage rates at Dongbok Dam and Juam Dam in South Jeolla, which are sources of drinking water in the area, rose to 34.8 percent and 30.1 percent as of Sunday morning from below 30 percent. The storage rate of a dam in Wando, South Jeolla also rose from 25 to 63 percent.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) forecasts that skies will clear and sunny weather will continue on Monday and Tuesday.

Daily lows on Monday will remain at 4 to 11 degrees Celsius (51.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and highs between 17 and 24 degrees Celsius. Morning temperatures will be 3 to 4 degrees Celsius lower than usual for this time of year before recovering to normal on Tuesday, according to the weather agency.

The KMA forecasted that southern region of the country would see rain until Sunday night and strong gusts of winds will blow in Jeju and coastal areas of South Gyeongsang on Monday.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO, JEONG EUN-HYE [[email protected]]