Extreme Downpour of 640mm Dumps in a Single Day; 1 Dead, 2 Injured

[Anchor]

Sudden heavy rain pounded the Gyeongsangnam-do region, which had been suffering from a severe drought, causing a series of damages over the holiday weekend. In particular, extreme downpours exceeding 120 millimeters per hour struck Geoje, triggering a landslide that left one person dead and two others injured.

For our first report, here is reporter Lee Se-hyeon.

[Reporter]

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

At 4:40 a.m. yesterday (August 17), a retaining wall directly behind an apartment in Okpo-dong, Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do collapsed, leading to a landslide.

[Kim Jeong-su / Geoje Apartment Resident: Early in the morning, I had that window open, and then there was a loud thunderclap! As the trees fell down, (the soil and debris) came rushing in....]

A man in his 20s living on the first floor was rescued and taken to the hospital, but ultimately died, while two residents living in another first-floor unit were also injured.

In Geoje, where the rain began on August 15th, torrential downpours poured down as if the sky had burst open early yesterday morning.

Starting around 1:30 a.m., an extreme downpour of 124.5 millimeters 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. yesterday, the daily rainfall reaching 638.7 millimeters was also the highest recorded amount since Typhoon Rusa dumped over 700 to 800 millimeters of rain in Gangwon Province back in 2002.

[Kim Bun-yeon / Geoje Citizen: It was so terrifying at night that I couldn't even come out to look. Water just came pouring down from above, completely as high as a person's height.]

Roads across the city were submerged in water, and fire authorities received more than 1,600 reports from Geoje alone regarding flooded homes and apartment basement parking lots.

A total of 91 people who were isolated due to flooded homes and other incidents were rescued, and over 200 citizens evacuated to community centers and other shelters.

Gyeongsangnam-do Governor Park Wan-su instructed the government during a provincial administration meeting this morning to request the designation of the Geoje and Tongyeong regions as "special disaster zones," and Geoje Mayor Byun Kwang-yong also requested the declaration of a special disaster zone.

As the rain subsided, the city of Geoje announced that it would resume normal operations for all city and intercity bus routes, excluding some flooded areas.

(Camera Reporter: Hwang Tae-cheol (KNN), Video Editor: Shin Se-eun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.