"Everything Was Washed Away," Devastated Citizens Face Severe Flood Damage in Tongyeong

[Anchor]

Tongyeong has also been battered by successive flood damages, including landslides. Our reporting team visited the sites where recovery efforts have begun, where citizens who suffered massive losses could not hide their despair.

Reporter Kim Su-yun has the story.

[Reporter]

An uphill road in Bongpyeong-dong, Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do.

Due to the torrential downpour during the holiday period, parts of the two-lane road leading to a temple on the hill cracked and collapsed.

Water and sewage pipes beneath the road were left exposed as the ground itself completely gave way, rendering traffic impossible. Recovery work began as the rain stopped.

With the access route to the temple completely blocked, construction of a temporary road is underway, filling in dirt from the bottom of the road upward.

[Park Eun-hee / Bongpyeong-dong, Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do: They need to restore this quickly so it is easier for us to get around. We are just getting by for a little while with the food we have at home.]

At nearby shops and houses that suffered flooding, residents began recovery efforts by hauling out soaked furniture and appliances, but they remain overwhelmed.

[Kim Seok-geun / Bongpyeong-dong, Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do: Even though we have been cleaning up for two days now, we still haven't been able to sort everything out.]

The heavy downpour also left significant damage to Tongyeong's major industrial sites.

At an anchovy processing plant in Sanyang-eup, mud and debris that poured down from a nearby mountain rushed into the building, making it difficult even to enter.

The freezing 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 dare to think about restoring it. There is nowhere to dry the anchovies, and we are now on the verge of shutting down the business.]

Traditional market vendors whose products were entirely washed away have also suffered massive losses.

[Choi Dong-soon / Herb Vendor: (Where did all the items you were selling go?) They are gone. They were all swept away by the rainwater.]

[Shin Ok-yeol / Wallpaper and Flooring Vendor: Since they cannot be sold at all if they get even slightly wet, we have no choice but to just throw them away.]

Torrential rain flooded the stores up to the display stands.

Even after continuously wiping the floors with mops, 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 by Park Na-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.