Extreme Downpour Reaches 124.5mm per Hour... One Dead in Landslide

[Anchor]

Torrential downpours suddenly pounded the Gyeongsangnam-do region, which had been suffering from a severe drought, causing a wave of damage. In particular, Geoje received an entire summer's worth of rain in just two days. An extreme downpour exceeding 120mm per hour triggered a landslide, leaving one dead and two injured.

For our first story, reporter Min Gyeongho has the details.

[Reporter]

The windows of the first and second floors of an apartment building were ripped out entirely along with their frames, and household items from inside spilled out through the living room windows.

At 4:40 a.m. today (August 17), mud and soil surged into the first and second floors of an apartment building in Okpo-dong, Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do.

The torrential rain that poured through the night caused a retaining wall directly behind the apartment to collapse, leading to a landslide.

[Kim Jeong-su / Geoje Apartment Resident: I had the window open over there at dawn when there was a loud crash of thunder! As the trees fell down, (the mud) came rushing in....]

Dispatched rescue workers launched a search for people trapped under the debris and rescued a man in his 20s living on the first floor, rushing him to a hospital, but he ultimately passed away.

Two residents living in another unit on the first floor were also injured, though their injuries are reportedly not life-threatening.

Landslides occurred in rapid succession across Geoje, with soil from nearby hills collapsing onto areas such as the entrance of Myeongjin Tunnel in Sangdong-dong and the Sinhyeon 1-gyo Intersection.

In Geoje, where the rain began the day before yesterday, torrential rain poured down as if the sky had torn open early this morning.

Starting around 1:30 a.m., an extreme downpour of 124.5mm per hour battered the area, marking the second-highest officially recorded hourly precipitation in the history of the Korea Meteorological Administration.

As of 6:00 p.m., the daily precipitation reaching 638.7mm also marked the highest amount since Typhoon Rusa dumped over 700 to 800mm of rain in Gangwon-do back in 2002.

[Kim Bun-yeon / Geoje Resident: It was so terrifying at night that I couldn't even step outside. Water just came pouring down from above as high as a person's height.]

The Geoje city government successively sent out emergency text messages warning of landslides and overflowing rivers starting at 2:10 a.m., and the National Fire Agency issued a National Fire Mobilization Order around 6:00 a.m.

Eight roads in the city center were submerged, restricting traffic in some sections, and fire reports received in Geoje alone exceeded 1,600, including flooded houses and basement parking lots in apartments.

Ninety-one people who were isolated due to flooded homes and other incidents were rescued, and about 200 citizens who evacuated to village halls and other shelters had to spend a sleepless night.

Power outages hit more than 1,600 homes and stores in areas including Ilun-myeon, Gohyeon-dong, and Jangseungpo-dong, causing major inconveniences for residents.

(Camera Shot: Hwang Tae-cheol / KNN, Video Editing: Park Chun-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.