Torrential rain pounds South Korea for third day as thousands take shelter

SEOUL – More than 5,000 people in South Korea have been forced into shelters as heavy rain pounded parts of the country for a third day, with the deluge killing at least four people and destroying property and infrastructure, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said on July 18.

Warnings of torrential rain remain in effect

for most of the country’s western and southern regions and the weather service has advised extreme caution against landslides and flooding till July 19.

Some parts in the south, including Gwangju city, were hit by record precipitation of more than 400mm in the past 24 hours as at early on July 18, the ministry said.

Four people have died and one remained missing, it said.

Two were trapped in cars on flooded roads and another died in a basement under floodwater in the central South Chungcheong province, it added.

A driver was also killed after a 10m roadside wall collapsed on top of a moving vehicle on July 16 in Osan, some 44km south of Seoul, fire agency officials said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who has been vocal about stepping up the government’s role in disaster prevention and response, said that while natural disasters are hard to prevent, more can be done to anticipate damage and warn the public.

“I see there were cases where casualties occurred because of a poor response when the situation was reasonably predictable,” he said at an emergency meeting on the weather on July 18, calling for all available resources to be deployed. REUTERS