[Anchor]
As record-breaking downpours battered Geoje, buildings were submerged and vehicles were washed away. Viewer-submitted footage captures just how terrifying extreme heavy rain can be.
Reporter Cho Min-ki has the details.
[Reporter]
Early this morning (August 17), a street in Okpo-dong, Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province.
Muddy water engulfs the entire road, rushing down with terrifying force, while a man trying to rescue his car on the road is trapped by the current, unable to move an inch.
Sewers back up, sending water shooting upward, and cars unable to withstand the fierce current are swept away.
[Park Hyung-su / Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: Too much water came down from the mountain and pushed the car away. Water was gushing out like a waterfall, streaming down the roads and everywhere.]
Footage also captured water rapidly rising throughout the night.
A building entrance where the current had reached ankle-height for adults was instantly half-submerged.
One vehicle is buried under the current, making it hard to even recognize its shape.
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The situation did not improve even as morning arrived.
The underground parking lot of an apartment complex was completely flooded, leaving only the tops of cars barely visible, and elevators ground to a halt due to power outages.
[Kim Dong-hee / Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: The underground parking lot, including the emergency stairs, was entirely flooded, and power outages across all households left everyone stuck with nowhere to go.]
Store windows on streets across the area were smashed to pieces, unable to withstand the raging torrents.
[Han Seung-heon / Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: The water rushed down to a somewhat frightening degree. I was startled for a moment, and thought something terrible might happen, my heart sinking...]
Tourists visiting Geoje during the holiday weekend were also left shaken by the torrential rain.
[Yoon Ye-rin / Jongno-gu, Seoul: It rained so hard we couldn't see ahead at all. It rained intensely as if the sky had torn open, and many bricks flew around and ended up under cars.]
Fire authorities explained that the heavy downpour coincided with high tide, which appears to have exacerbated the flooding damage.
The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters decided to urgently provide 3 billion won in special grant tax and 40 million won in disaster relief project funds to heavy rain-affected areas, including South Gyeongsang and South Jeolla provinces.
(Video Editing: Lee Hong-myung, Footage Courtesy of Instagram @kang_body_)
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