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

[Anchor]

Heavy downpours battered the Honam and Chungcheong regions today. In particular, nearly 200mm of rain poured in North Jeolla Province alone today, leading to a series of damages. In Jeongeup, a man in his 70s who went out to check the rice paddies early in the morning has gone missing, while roads and villages were submerged in Gochang.

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

[Reporter]

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

A passenger car that happened to be passing by stopped dead in the middle of the road, unable to move forward or backward.

As a massive amount of rain fell at once, water rushed down from the mountain and flooded the road.

However, because the water could not drain in time due to the swollen river, the road and surrounding villages 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 died. They're all dead, and the engines are ruined. I called the insurance company, but they can't even get here.]

With heavy rain concentrated in a short period of time, damages such as flooded roads and homes and landslides have continued. 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 hill behind the house collapsed helplessly, exposing red soil.

Swept-down piles of dirt and tree branches pushed right up to the back of the house and are tangled in disarray.

[Kwon Du-yeol / Mujang-myeon, Gochang-gun, North Jeolla Province: There was a little debris at the entrance here reaching over there, so I went in to gather it toward the center. I went in and took about three shovel loads, and it collapsed in an instant.]

In Jeongeup, where a heavy rain warning was once issued, a report was filed that a man in his 70s who went out to clear the water channel at dawn has not returned, prompting police and fire authorities to conduct search operations.

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

(Video by: Yu Ji-young | Video Editing by: Lee Hong-myeong | Footage provided by: Jebuk Fire Headquarters)

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