Extreme Downpour Reaches 640mm in a Day... Landslide Leaves Three Dead or Injured

[Anchor]

Torrential rain exceeding 120mm per hour triggered a landslide in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, striking an apartment building. A man in his 20s living on the first floor died, and two residents were injured.

Today's (the 18th) first report comes from reporter Min Gyeongho.

[Reporter]

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

At 4:40 AM yesterday, mud and debris poured into the first and second floors of an apartment in Okpo-dong, Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province.

The torrential rain that fell throughout the night caused a retaining wall directly behind the apartment to collapse, leading to a landslide.

[Kim Jeong-su / Geoje Apartment Resident: In the early morning, I had that window open when there was a loud crash of thunder! As the trees fell and the mud rushed in....]

Rescue workers dispatched to the scene searched for buried victims and rescued a man in his 20s living on the first floor, transferring him to a hospital, but he ultimately passed away.

Two residents living in another unit on the first floor were also injured, but they are known not to be in life-threatening condition.

Landslides occurred consecutively across various parts of Geoje, with soil from nearby hills collapsing near the entrance of Myeongjin Tunnel in Sangdong-dong and the Sinhyeon 1-gyo Three-way Intersection.

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

Starting around 1:30 AM, an extreme downpour of 124.5mm per hour was recorded, marking the second highest in the official observation history of the Korea Meteorological Administration.

The daily precipitation reaching 638.7mm as of 6:00 PM yesterday was also the highest amount recorded since Typhoon Rusa poured over 700 to 800mm of rain in Gangwon Province back in 2002.

[Kim Bun-yeon / Geoje Citizen: I was too scared at night to even come out and look. Water just poured down from above as high as a person's height.]

Geoje City successively issued emergency text messages warning of landslides and river overflows starting at 2:10 AM, and the National Fire Agency issued a National Fire Mobilization Order around 6:00 AM yesterday.

Eight city roads were submerged, restricting traffic in some sections, and fire reports received in Geoje alone exceeded 1,600 cases, including flooded houses and basement parking lots in apartments.

Ninety-one people who were isolated due to flooded homes were rescued, and about 200 citizens who evacuated to community centers and other facilities had to spend the night wide awake.

Power outages affected more than 1,600 homes and businesses in Ilun-myeon, Gohyeon-dong, and Jangseungpo-dong, causing inconvenience for residents.

(Video by Hwang Tae-cheol / KNN, Video Editing by Park Choon-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.