[Anchor]
When heavy rain pours down in a short period, as seen in the recent torrential downpour in Geoje, people who rush into underground parking lots to move their cars may end up trapped. Experts advise that if water has already begun to fill the parking lot, it is safer to simply abandon the vehicle.
Reporter Kim Gyu-ri has more.
[Reporter]
An underground parking lot at an apartment complex in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, was struck by extreme downpours at dawn.
Only the tops of the vehicles are barely visible, while residents sit helplessly at the entrance, watching their cars submerge.
By the time the announcement to move vehicles was broadcast, water had already rushed in.
[Resident, Yangjeong-dong, Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: There was a broadcast at dawn telling us to move our cars. So I went down, but everything was already flooded. When I went down, the water had already risen enough to submerge the cars.]
[Park Chul-seok / Resident, Yangjeong-dong, Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: My wife was trapped in the elevator yesterday. She was trapped for about 30 minutes and barely escaped when the water reached her neck. Because of the trauma...]
Once flooding begins in an underground parking lot, the entrance and exit ramps instantly turn into channels where water surges in rapidly.
[Cho Won-chul / Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University: If water flows down an underground parking lot entrance at a depth of 15 cm or more, the speed exceeds 2 meters per second, making it difficult for even a reasonably strong adult to walk back up.]
[Lee Young-joo / Professor, Department of Fire and Disaster Protection, Kyungil University: Whether the water is shallow or deep is not the issue. When you hear the news that an underground parking lot is flooding, you must not go underground.]
In fact, during Typhoon Hinnamnor in 2022, seven residents at an apartment complex in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, went down to the underground parking lot to move their cars and were trapped and killed by the rapidly rising water.
While people might think driving is still possible up to knee-deep water, once the water rises to cover the car tires, even an adult man will find it difficult to open the car door and get out on his own.
[Let's try opening the door once. It is not easy to open the door.]
Installing flood barriers at the entrance of an underground parking lot can help delay rainwater from entering.
[Cho Won-chul / Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University: We need to manufacture flood barrier panels to block water from coming in at the entrance. Up to 1 meter high, if we set it up to this level...]
Experts unanimously advised that if heavy rain is forecasted, vehicles should be moved in advance, and if flooding has already started, it is safer to give up the vehicles entirely.
(Video by: Yoon Hyung | Video Editing by: Lee Sang-min | Footage provided by: Korea Transportation Safety Authority)
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