Two-Lane Road Collapses... "Hundreds of Millions Won Lost" in Sudden Disasters Across Regions

[Anchor]

The damage in Tongyeong is also severe. Roads have collapsed and been cut off, while factories hit by landslides are struggling even to continue their businesses. Merchants expressed their devastation, saying all the goods they were selling washed away in the rain.

Reporter Kim Su-yun covered the scene.

[Reporter]

An uphill road in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province.

Due to the torrential rain during the holiday period, parts of the two-lane road leading to a temple on the uphill broke and collapsed.

With water and sewage pipes exposed underneath and the ground itself completely giving way, passage has become impossible, and recovery work began as the rain stopped.

As the route up to the temple is completely blocked, temporary road construction is underway, filling the road with soil from below.

[Park Eun-hee / Bongpyeong-dong, Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province: You need to restore it quickly so it's easier for us to get around. We're just buying some time with the food we have at home.]

At nearby flooded stores and houses, residents have begun recovery efforts by clearing out wet furniture and appliances, but they feel helpless.

[Kim Seok-geun / Bongpyeong-dong, Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province: Even though we've been clearing things out for two days now, we still haven't been able to clean everything up.]

The heavy downpour also left massive damage to major industrial sites in Tongyeong.

At an anchovy processing plant in Sanyang-eup, soil and debris pouring down from a nearby mountain flooded the building, making it difficult even to enter.

The cold storage facility collapsed, and various equipment, including anchovy drying machines, broke down. All the anchovies stored ahead of shipment were damaged, and the dormitory for foreign workers also collapsed, leaving the business on the verge of closing down.

[Cho Hyung-ho / Anchovy Plant Operator: You could say we lost more than 300 million won. As you can see, I don't even have the heart to [restore it]. There's nowhere to dry anchovies, and I'm on the verge of closing down the business right now.]

Traditional market merchants, whose sales products were all washed away, also suffered massive losses.

[Choi Dong-soon / Herb Vendor: (Where did all the items you were selling go...) They're gone. They were all washed away by the rainwater, so what can I do?]

[Shin Ok-yeol / Wallpaper and Flooring Vendor: Because they can't be sold if they get even slightly wet, we have no choice but to throw them away.]

Extreme downpours filled the stores with water all the way up to the display stands.

Even after continuously wiping the floor with a mop like this, muddy water still squeezes out when wrung.

While recovery work is underway across Tongyeong, it is expected to take a considerable amount of time for citizens to fully recover their daily lives.

(Video by: Jung Kyung-mun, Video Editing: Park Na-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.