Death toll raised to 41 as more downpours approach

Social Affairs

Published: 17 Jul. 2023, 19:06 Updated: 18 Jul. 2023, 16:03

Death toll raised to 41 as more downpours approach

President Yoon Suk Yeol, in white sneakers, visits the site of a landslide in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang on Monday upon his return from a weeklong trip to Europe. [YONHAP]

Torrential rains will once again strike the central and southern parts of the country from Monday night through Tuesday, compounding challenges faced in these areas in the aftermath of last week’s tremendous rainfall.

The national weather agency's ominous forecast comes as authorities raised the total death count from last week’s downpour to 41 on Monday evening.

Several more deaths were added in a day after additional bodies were recovered from an underpass in Cheongju's hamlet of Osong-eup, which was submerged by a flooded river on Saturday morning, trapping 17 vehicles inside, including a bus.

As of Monday at 6 p.m., the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters said 19 deaths were logged in North Chungcheong, followed by 16 in North Gyeongsang, four in South Chungcheong and one in Sejong. An additional body was found at the Osong underpass after the 6 p.m. announcement.

Fourteen deaths in North Chungcheong have been traced to the Osong underpass.

Nine people remain missing, including eight in connection to a series of landslides in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang. The other missing person has been identified as a woman in her 60s who went missing on July 11 in Busan.

Thirty-four people have been injured in all.

By Monday morning, approximately 5,600 people who evacuated their homes were still unable to return.

With search and rescue operations currently underway, the anticipated heavy rainfall in the Chungcheong and southern regions this week is unlikely to offer any relief.

Some 30 to 60 millimeters (1.2 to 2.4 inches) of rain per hour have been forecast for most parts of the country on Tuesday, with the southern coastline and Mount Jiri areas potentially receiving up to 80 millimeters of rain per hour, according to estimates from the Korea Meteorological Administration.

Some hard-hit areas in the southern and Chungcheong regions could get up to 100 millimeters of rain per hour, weather officials warned, while the higher elevations of Jeju Island might receive upwards of 100 millimeters per hour through Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday, the Chungcheong and southern regions, as well as Jeju Island, will likely receive between 100 and 200 millimeters of rain in total, with some areas possibly receiving over 300 millimeters.

Southern Gyeonggi and the inland areas of Gangwon are expected to receive 30 to 100 millimeters of rain by Wednesday, while the rest of the Seoul metropolitan area is expected to get far less, about 10 to 60 millimeters.

Once the rainclouds recede, sweltering heat is anticipated to push nationwide temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), before making way for yet another downpour on Saturday.

As the draining operation in Osong nears an end, the Office for Government Policy Coordination on Monday announced in a press release that it would launch an investigation to identify the cause of the accident and why no one stopped the vehicles from entering the deadly underpass.

“No organization will be exempt” from the probe, the office said, specifically mentioning the local governments of North Chungcheong, Cheongju and Heungdeok District, as well as the police and fire department, as targets.

In the press release, the Office for Government Policy Coordination said the police received a 112 emergency call on Saturday morning, about 40 minutes ahead of the deluge, suggesting the closure of the underpass.

In a separate statement the same day, the police said it would soon form its own investigation team exclusively dedicated to figuring out the cause of the accident, with the leader of the team being a senior police officer from Chungbuk Provincial Police Agency.

Upon his arrival from a weeklong tour to Europe, President Yoon Suk Yeol presided over a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on Monday morning and urged authorities to mobilize all resources to restore the wreckage caused by the monsoon.

“Recovery efforts and support for damage should be carried out promptly,” Yoon remarked during the meeting. “All available policy measures, including declaring the affected areas as special disaster zones, should be mobilized to expedite follow-up actions.”

Special disaster zones are declared in cases where an area has experienced a significant natural hazard, such as torrential rains or earthquakes, or a large-scale man-made disaster, such as the Itaewon crowd crush. When a special disaster zone is declared, the affected area becomes eligible for emergency relief and receives administrative and financial support from the government.

Immediately following the meeting, Yoon flew to Yecheon County in a helicopter to visit the site of the landslides, after which he went to a temporary shelter for evacuees to offer words of comfort.

Twenty-two schools nationwide, primarily in the severely affected South Chungcheong and North Gyeongsang regions, have taken precautionary measures against the rain by either transitioning to online learning, shortening class hours or starting summer break early, the Education Ministry said.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN, KIM MIN-WOOK AND CHON KWON-PIL [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]