Nearly 200 mm of Rain Pours in a Day… Man in His 70s Missing

[Anchor]

Torrential rains lashed the Honam and Chungcheong regions today (the 31st). In particular, North Jeolla Province received close to 200 mm of rain in just a single day today, leading to a succession of damages. In Jeongeup, a man in his 70s who went out to check his rice paddy in the early morning hours went missing, while roads and villages were submerged in Gochang.

Our first report comes from Kim Min-ji of JTV.

[Reporter]

A four-lane round-trip road is completely submerged in muddy water.

A passenger car driving by at the time became stranded in the middle of the road, unable to move forward or backward.

As heavy rain poured all at once, water rushed down from the mountain and spilled onto the road.

However, because the water could not drain in time due to the swollen river, the road and surrounding village became submerged, as you can see behind me.

[Park Chan-su / Asan-myeon, Gochang-gun, North Jeolla Province: The cars are all submerged now. The engines of the cars have stalled and shut down completely, ruining the engines too. I called the insurance company, but they couldn't even get here.]

With a massive amount of rain concentrated in a short period, damages such as flooded roads and houses, and landslides occurred consecutively. Over the three days starting from last weekend, more than 200 reports of rain damage alone have been filed with the police and fire authorities.

The slope of the mountain behind a house collapsed helplessly, exposing red soil directly.

Washed-down piles of dirt and tree branches pushed right up to the back of the house, tangling messily.

[Kwon Du-yeol / Mujang-myeon, Gochang-gun, North Jeolla Province: There was a little debris at the entrance reaching up to there, so I went in to gather it toward the middle. I went in and shoveled about three times when it collapsed in a split second.]

In Jeongeup, where a heavy rain warning was once issued, a report was filed that a man in his 70s who went out to adjust the water channel at dawn had not returned, and police and fire authorities are conducting a search operation.

In Asan-myeon, Gochang-gun, a stream overflowed and submerged a bridge connecting villages, and in Haeri-myeon, Gochang-gun, residents evacuated as the Gungsan Reservoir temporarily filled up to 120% of its flood level.

(Photo: Jeonbuk Fire Headquarters)

JTV Kim Min-ji
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.