Daily Rainfall Reaches 640mm in Extreme Downpour… 3 Casualties from Landslide

[Anchor]

Sudden heavy rain pounded the Gyeongsangnam-do region, which had been suffering from a severe drought, during the holiday weekend, causing widespread damage. In particular, Geoje was hit by an extreme downpour exceeding 120 millimeters per hour, triggering a landslide that left one person dead and two others injured.

Reporter Lee Se-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

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

At 4:40 a.m. yesterday (August 17), mud and debris crashed into the first and second floors of an apartment building in Okpo-dong, Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do.

The heavy rain that poured through the night caused a retaining wall directly behind the apartment to collapse, leading to the landslide.

[Kim Jeong-su / Geoje Apartment Resident: I had that window open early in the morning when there was a loud crash of thunder. A tree fell, and then the mud and debris came rushing in...]

Rescue workers who rushed to the scene began searching for trapped people, and rescued a man in his 20s living on the first floor to be transported to a hospital, but he ultimately passed away.

Two other residents living in a different unit on the first floor were also injured, but their injuries are reportedly not life-threatening.

Landslides occurred in various parts of Geoje as mud from nearby hillsides collapsed onto locations including the entrance of Myeongjin Tunnel in Sangdong-dong and the Sinhyeon 1-gyo Intersection.

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

Starting around 1:30 a.m., an extreme downpour of 124.5 millimeters per hour was recorded, marking the second-highest figure in the history of the Korea Meteorological Administration's official observation records.

As of 6:00 p.m. yesterday, the daily rainfall reaching 638.7 millimeters also recorded the highest amount since Typhoon Rusa dumped over 700 to 800 millimeters of rain in Gangwon-do back in 2002.

[Kim Bun-yeon / Geoje Citizen: I was too scared to even come outside at night. The water just poured down from above, completely as high as a person's height.]

The Geoje city government successively issued emergency text messages warning of landslides and overflowing rivers starting at 2:10 a.m., and the National Fire Agency issued a national firefighting mobilization order around 6:00 a.m. yesterday.

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

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

As the rain fortunately began to subside, the city of Geoje announced that, excluding some flooded areas, all city and intercity bus routes will resume normal operations today.

(Camera Reporter: Hwang Tae-cheol / KNN, Video Editor: Shin Se-eun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.