00:00 Intro
00:30 Mud Dug Out to Save Mother, But "Landslide Warning" Came Too Late
03:30 "Not a Landslide?"… Residents Furious
06:30 Landslide or Man-Made Disaster? It Has Happened Before
In mid-August, torrential downpours exceeding 100mm per hour pounded various regions in Gyeongsangnam-do, causing extensive damage. Among them, Geoje and Tongyeong suffered particularly severe impacts. While Tongyeong fortunately escaped with just one injury, Geoje recorded one fatality and two injuries. We looked into whether the casualties caused by the heavy rainfall were simply unfortunate tragedies, or if someone's response fell short along the way.
1. Mud Dug Out to Save Mother… "Landslide Warning" Came Too Late
First, let's look at Tongyeong. In the case of Tongyeong, where one person was injured, the dispatch of the emergency evacuation text message was far too late. There is an island called Gonrido in Tongyeong, where a woman in her 60s was swept away by a landslide and debris. That happened at around 4:30 AM on the 17th of last month when heavy rain was pouring down. The Coast Guard received the rescue report at 5:03 AM on the same day. However, the text message notifying them to evacuate due to a landslide warning was sent out only at 7:00 AM, two hours later. The rescue operation at the time was reportedly desperate. Our reporting team met the victim's son, who explained that his mother was found covered in a blanket, and that the Coast Guard and the son had to manually cut away the surrounding piles of mud and debris one by one to carry out the rescue. Fortunately, although she suffered a fracture in her leg, her life was not in danger, and we heard she is currently receiving treatment at a nearby hospital. The rescue operation was completed in about an hour and a half, finishing around 6:30 AM, which means the evacuation alert was sent out belatedly 30 minutes after the casualty had already occurred. Some skeptics might ask, "What's the big deal about sending out texts individually anyway?" But that is not true. Evacuation texts are extremely important. Many people are unaware that a landslide has even occurred and rely on such alerts to decide to get out of harm's way. That is why we repeatedly send out disaster text messages when natural disasters strike. When we asked the Tongyeong City Hall why the transmission was delayed, officials confessed to our reporting team that it was difficult to make a judgment at the scene at the time.
[Tongyeong City Hall Official: We simply didn't expect it to rain that heavily in the early morning. It was just too difficult for us to make a judgment.]
The Korea Forest Service provides landslide information to local governments at one-hour intervals. They send out information on which areas are particularly dangerous, in what aspects, and to what degree, so that each local government can make decisions tailored to its own situation. Tongyeong City admitted that their decision-making was delayed during this process. Looking into it more specifically, they explained that they did not expect such heavy rain in the early morning hours, that not all public officials on night duty are experts in landslides, and above all, that holding an emergency situation-assessment meeting through administrative procedures to decide whether to issue disaster text messages or sound a landslide warning is neither easy nor fast at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. While one can understand the explanation from the officials, offering such excuses for a delayed response after human casualties had already occurred was difficult for our reporting team to readily accept.
2. "Not a Landslide?"… Residents Furious
Let's also examine the case in Geoje. In Okpo-dong, Geoje, a nearby mountain collapsed, sending mud and soil sweeping down and causing casualties. One person died and two were injured. Another issue arose here: internal divisions within the city hall over whether this incident constituted a "landslide" or not. To us, seeing soil collapse like that makes us think, "If that isn't a landslide, what is?" and the residents were dumbfounded, but there were complex administrative and internal backgrounds involved.
Inside the Geoje City Hall, one department referred to the soil collapse as a "landslide," while another called it "slope erosion." The terminology might sound difficult, but slope erosion simply means that a slope has collapsed. In essence, whether it is called a landslide or slope erosion, earth and rocks cascade down a slope in both cases. So what is the difference? A landslide is a phenomenon that occurs in natural areas such as forestlands or mountainous districts. Because it happens in natural zones, it is classified as a natural disaster, and the responsibility for restoration and compensation lies with the state or local government. Consequently, the Korea Forest Service and individual local governments step in for restoration. On the other hand, slope erosion occurs in artificial zones. Land where someone has artificially cut into a mountainous area and performed foundation work to erect a building is commonly referred to as a building site (daeji). Slope erosion occurring in such artificial areas like building sites typically falls under the responsibility of the owner. Therefore, it is considered a man-made disaster rather than a natural disaster, shifting the responsibility for restoration from the state or local government to the private sector. The department managing forests insisted it was slope erosion and a man-made disaster, whereas the department managing buildings argued it was a landslide and a natural disaster.
[Geoje City Hall Official A: All causative actions and such are unrelated to a landslide right now, and from our perspective, we are stating that this is the collapse of a housing retaining wall that occurred within a building site.]
[Geoje City Hall Official B: From my perspective, naturally, the nearby forestland also collapsed together like this. Saying that only the building site part was cleanly cut off and collapsed makes no sense at all.]
In the end, it was concluded as slope erosion. This was because the site was regarded as an artificial plot of land that a construction company had purchased and cut into in the past to build an apartment complex. We understand why this is a sensitive issue since it inevitably links directly to the question of liability. However, from the residents' standpoint, why should it matter so much to them whether it is called a landslide or slope erosion? As you have seen in many videos, the retaining wall collapsed along with soil sweeping down from the mountain behind, so residents naturally had no choice but to think of it as a landslide, and some residents are still unable to return to their homes weeks later. Which residents could possibly accept it if the responsibility is suddenly shifted onto the victimized residents in the form of paying management fees?
[Nearby Resident: That's not right. That is truly not right. Anyone looking at this would call it a landslide.]
[Nearby Resident: It makes no sense. It makes no sense at all. Why should the people here bear the responsibility?]
3. Landslide or Man-Made Disaster? It Has Happened Before
In fact, this debate over whether an incident is a landslide is not without precedent. Our reporting team looked back and found that in August 2022, heavy rain battered an apartment complex in Dongjak-gu, Seoul. At that time, a retaining wall also collapsed. Questions arose then as well regarding who should clear it up, and strictly speaking, administratively, it was not a landslide either. In other words, because it was a man-made disaster, it was an issue that the residents should have had to bear; however, as it was designated as a special disaster zone at the time and drew widespread attention, approximately 3.8 billion won in municipal, district, and national funds was injected. Retaining wall restoration work was carried out, and we confirmed that the residents back then did not have to pay any money out of pocket.
Tongyeong and Geoje were also designated as special disaster zones last week. Geoje City Hall told our reporting team that although strictly speaking, the responsibility for compensation and restoration lies with the private sector, they are reviewing and looking into ways the city can assist due to safety concerns and the sheer severity of the danger, but the ultimate outcome remains to be seen until the very end. Heavy rains will fall every year. And landslides like this can happen again at any time. As we travel further to the provinces, many of our apartment complexes are located near mountains. We cannot simply tell the residents to shoulder the responsibility every single time this happens. We must thoroughly examine whether there are any loopholes in our disaster notification and recovery systems.
(Reported by Kim Minjun | Produced by Shin Hee-suk | Video by Kang Si-woo | Video Editing by Hong Jin-young | Design by Lee Jung-joo | Produced by SBS Digital News)
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