South Korea: Torrential rains kill many, cause widespread damage | News
Five days of torrential downpours in South Korea have left at least 15 people dead and 11 others missing.
The stormy weather caused flash floods and mudslides, damaging roads and burying vast tracts of farmland in the southern mountainous area of Anseong in Gyeonggi Province.
Suwon, also in Gyeonggi Province, recorded 145mm (6 inches) of rain 24 hours up to 06:00 GMT on Thursday.
To the north, Buk Chuncheon recorded 520mm (20.5 inches) of rain in the last four days – 200mm (8 inches) more than the average rainfall for the entire month of August.
Some main roads were briefly cut off by mudflows but have reopened.
The fresh round of storms has forced more than 1,000 people from their homes, mostly from Chungcheongbuk-do Province and Gyeonggi.
Local authorities have set up temporary shelters to accommodate those affected.
Further south, the remnants of Typhoon Hagupit brought heavy rains and caused floods in Pan’an County in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province.
Torrential downpours and strong winds caused many rivers to swell, flooding roads, homes and farmlands.
A final warning was issued for the storm on Tuesday evening as the system weakened into a deep area of low pressure, the center of which has since moved into the Sea of Japan.
That low is now engaging with the seasonal rains on the Meiyu Front, and is forecast to drift across Hokkaido, dragging even more heavy rain across the Korean Peninsula in the process.
Some people in the high-risk areas have been evacuated as many areas are likely to see 100 to 200mm (4-8 inches) of rain over the next three days. A few isolated spots could even see about 300mm (12 inches) of rainfall.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
