Down to Move a Car in a Flash... "Even Adult Men Can't Get Out"

[Anchor]

During the recent torrential downpour, vehicles were washed away on roads and underground parking lots were completely submerged. Fortunately, this did not lead to casualties. When heavy rain pours and water rises like this, evacuating takes priority over your vehicle.

Reporter Kim Gyu-ri has the details.

[Reporter]

In the underground parking lot of an apartment complex in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, which was struck by extreme heavy rain early yesterday morning (September 17), only the tops of vehicles are barely visible as residents sit helplessly at the entrance, watching their cars flood.

By the time the broadcast announcement to move vehicles came out, water had already rushed in.

[Resident of an apartment in Yangjeong-dong, Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province: There was a broadcast telling us to move our cars early in the morning. So I went down, but it was already all flooded. By the time I went down, the water was already high enough to submerge the cars.]

Once an underground parking lot begins to flood, the entrance and exit ramps instantly become pathways through which water rapidly rushes in.

[Cho Won-chul, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University: When water over 15 cm deep flows down the entrance ramp of an underground parking lot, the velocity exceeds 2 meters per second, making it difficult for even a strong adult man to walk back up.]

[Lee Young-joo, Professor, Department of Fire and Disaster Protection, Kyungil University: Whether the water is shallow or deep is not the issue. When you hear that an underground parking lot is flooding, you must not go down there.]

In fact, during Typhoon Hinnamnor in 2022, seven residents at an apartment complex in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, went down to the underground parking lot to move their vehicles and were trapped and killed by suddenly rising water.

People might think driving is still possible when water reaches knee height, but once water rises to submerge the car tires, even an adult man alone can hardly open the car door and get out.

[Let's try opening the door once. It is not easy to open the door.]

Installing flood barriers at the entrance of an underground parking lot can help delay rainwater from entering.

[Cho Won-chul, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University: We need to manufacture flood barriers and block water from entering at the entrance. If we do this up to 1 meter high.]

Experts unanimously advised that if heavy rain is forecasted, vehicles should be moved in advance, and if flooding has already begun, it is safest to completely give up on the vehicle.

(Video by: Yoon Hyung | Video Editing by: Lee Sang-min | Footage provided by: Korea Transportation Safety Authority)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.