Barely Surviving Buried in Mud... Helpless Against '450mm Water Bomb'

[Anchor]

Torrential rains exceeding 450 millimeters poured down today, August 17, in Tongyeong near Geoje as well as in Busan. A landslide on an island in Tongyeong also buried a resident in their 60s who was later rescued.
 
Reporter Kim Minjun will report on the situation along the southern coast, which suffered damage comparable to Geoje.

[Reporter]

A person can be seen barely lying prone under a blanket amidst piles of mud, holding onto a bucket.

This is the scene where the Korea Coast Guard rescued a female resident in her 60s, surnamed A, who was buried in a landslide on Gonrido Island in Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, around 5:00 AM today.

The rescue operation lasted for nearly an hour and a half, and resident A was transported to a nearby hospital with injuries, including a leg fracture and hypothermia.

At that time, torrential rain of 51.3mm per hour was battering Tongyeong.

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Roads in various areas were paralyzed by the heavy rain that poured overnight.

Citizens got out of their cars in the rain to clear fallen trees blocking the road with their own hands.

[Tongyeong Citizen: It was hard to make a U-turn there because the tree was too big. A landslide-like situation also occurred slightly behind it.]

A truck is stuck in a pothole after rainwater, raging like a river, cracked and deeply gouged parts of the asphalt road.

Traffic heading toward Daejeon on the Tongyeong-Daejeon Expressway at the Tongyeong Toll Gate was restricted for a time in the afternoon as crews cleared mud and debris that had collapsed onto the road.

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Heavy rain damage continued in Busan and Jeju as well. In the Deokcheon-dong area of Busan, commercial banners and signs fell down, while in Gupyeong-dong, a boulder weighing about 1 ton washed down by rainwater blocked the road, causing traffic inconveniences.

Drainage operations to pump water out of flooded homes continued throughout the night in areas of Seogwipo and Jeju City, Jeju.

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As of 6:00 PM, the amount of rainfall recorded across the southern coast today was 453.7mm in Tongyeong, 105mm in Busan, 103mm in Jinju, and 88mm in Changwon.

At one point, more than 140 roads and bridges were restricted in Sacheon, Goseong, and Tongyeong, and 40 residents from 22 households evacuated.

(Video Editing: Park Na-young, Footage Courtesy of: Tongyeong Coast Guard, Gyeongnam Fire Service, Busan Fire Service, Jeju Fire Service)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.