[Anchor]
Island regions in Tongyeong that were battered by extreme torrential rains are facing even more severe damage than the mainland. With a shortage of recovery equipment and personnel, some residents are living in anxiety, unable to return to their homes due to the risk of additional collapses.
Reporter Kim Su-yun reports from the scene of the damage.
[Reporter]
This is Gonrido, Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, a village of about 30 households.
The reporting team inspected the village, where heavy rain in the early hours of the 17th sent mudslides crashing down, destroying multiple houses and burying a woman in her 60s.
The front door is blocked by mud, and heaps of dirt are piled high behind the house.
This is inside the home where a woman in her 60s was injured in the landslide.
The storage room is packed with dirt, and the main gate and utility room are completely destroyed beyond recognition.
The son, who personally rescued his buried mother, also suffered injuries to his arms and legs. With the house completely destroyed, the mother is staying at a hospital and the son at a nearby minbak (guesthouse).
[Son of Buried Victim: I've lived here for about 10 years, and it's the first time we've had this much rain, and the first flood damage where water rushed down hard enough to collapse the retaining wall.]
The mud that swept through the village came down from the playground of a nearby closed school.
The ground of the playground could not withstand the heavy rain and gave way.
The extreme rainfall weakened the playground's foundation, and the soil and debris swept straight down for about 50 meters, engulfing the houses below.
[Kim Chan-o / Resident of Gonrido, Tongyeong: It brought a year's worth of rain, so that pressure pushed down toward the weaker terrain.]
There is also a house whose front yard completely collapsed.
It is dangerously tilted, making it impossible to know when an additional collapse might occur.
The roads in front of the houses clearly show cracks in the ground, leaving the family unable to enter their home and spending anxious days.
[Kim Sung-jin / Resident of Gonrido, Tongyeong: It seemed to collapse in about three or four seconds. We can't even go inside the house because of the possibility of a secondary collapse.]
Island areas face greater constraints in deploying equipment and personnel compared to the mainland, meaning recovery is expected to take more time, making practical support measures for affected residents urgently necessary.
(Video by: Jeong Kyeong-mun, Video Editing by: Park Na-young)
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