Seoul: Parts of South Korea have been hit by record rainfall that usually only occurs once every 200 years, the country’s weather bureau told AFP on Wednesday, with the interior ministry reporting four deaths.
“The three regions experienced the highest rainfall, the probability of which is seen approximately every 200 years,” an official from the South Korea Meteorological Agency told AFP.
Three areas – Geumsan in South Chungcheong, Chupungnyeong in North Chungcheong and Gunsan in North Jeolla – experienced some of the heaviest hourly downpours on record, data from the weather department showed.
“This is not calculated based on past records,” an AFP spokesman said, adding that full records began in 1904.
“When rainfall intensity is calculated by region, it turns out that such an event could be expected once every 200 years.”
In Gunsan, 131.7 mm (more than five inches) of rain fell in one hour on Wednesday morning – more than 10 percent of the area’s annual average.
Some rivers overflowed and roads were flooded by heavy rain, images from South Korean broadcasters showed, with people seen wading through waist-deep water in some areas.
The rain claimed four lives, the interior ministry said.
Rescuers found a body trapped in an elevator after a studio apartment in Nonsan, South Chungcheong was flooded early Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported.
Another victim was found dead after being sucked into the sewage system during a crop inspection in the city of Daegu.
One man in a car returning home from tending cattle was swept into a stream – still inside his vehicle – in North Chungcheong.
“I ask that people stay away from underground parking lots, subways and streams during heavy rains,” Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said in a statement.
The country is regularly hit by floods during the summer monsoon season, but is usually well prepared and the death toll is usually relatively low.
Scientists say climate change has made weather around the world more extreme and more frequent.
Last July, more than a dozen people died when an underpass flooded, with water rushing too fast for vehicles inside to escape.
South Korea also endured record rains and floods in 2022 that left more than 11 dead.
Among them were three people who died trapped in a Seoul basement apartment of the kind made internationally famous by the Oscar-winning Korean film “Parasite.”
