Deadly underpass flooding in South Korea ‘could have been prevented’, official inquiry finds
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Police investigators examining an underground roadway in the town of Osong, Cheongju, South Korea, on July 20, 2023.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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SEOUL - An official inquiry concluded on Friday that the flooding in an underpass that led to 14 deaths
The Office for Government Policy Coordination in a press briefing said its 10-day inquiry found a failure to respond to the flooding across the police and fire departments, as well as the respective municipal offices.
The underpass in Osong, a town near the government complex in North Chungcheong Province, was completely submerged in the morning of July 15 about five minutes after the record downpour broke down a nearby river’s banks.
The inquiry found that the river’s banks wrecked by the rain were temporary instalments that did not meet safety standards.
While the weather authorities had warned of heavy rain in advance, neither the municipal offices of Osong nor the province took measures to plan or monitor possible flood threats.
No police were dispatched to the site despite at least two emergency calls having been made about 1½ hours and 42 minutes before the flooding, respectively.
The inquiry found that the police then entered the calls into the internal system as if dispatches had been made. A day before the flooding, the fire department received a complaint that the river’s banks were appearing to collapse but took no measures, the inquiry also found.
The policy coordination office said it was seeking to investigate at least 36 people at the police and other public agencies over their response to the flooding in the underpass. It said it planned on conducting an inspection of disaster preparedness and response system across municipalities. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
