Heavy downpours leave at least 37 dead in Korea on lack of prevention measures

Drainage work is under way in a flooded underpass in Osong, North Chungcheong Province on July 17. [Photo by Yonhap]

Heavy downpours over the weekend left at least 35 people dead in the central region of South Korea, safety authorities said on Sunday.

The extreme downpours, despite having been forecast, left a trail of destruction across the country, causing floods and landslides due to inadequate response from local governments and administrative authorities. The accidents have also revealed the true face of the backwardness of the country’s disaster prevention infrastructure.

According to official figures reported by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, as of 6 p.m. on Sunday, 37 people have died and nine are missing nationwide due to concentrated heavy rains from July 9 through Sunday.

As recovery efforts continue in a flooded underpass in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, the death toll is expected to increase. In particular, there is mounting criticism that the accidents that occurred over the weekend are “backward-type human disasters” caused by the total failure of the disaster prevention system, such as lack of advance preparation, failure to detect signs, and inadequate response.

According to sources, there were signs of an imminent overflow of the Miho River, which directly caused the Osong disaster, were detected, but appropriate follow-up measures were not taken. A flood warning was issued at 4:10 a.m. on Saturday. At 6:30 a.m. that day, the water level reached “serious,” which is higher than the warning level, and the Geum River Flood Control Center informed the competent ward office that traffic control was needed, but the administrative authority reportedly did not take action until 8:40 a.m., when the bank near the Miho Bridge began to wash away.

Some analysts say the accident is similar to the one that occurred in Choryang No. 1 Underpass in Dong-gu district, Busan, which killed three people in July 2020. At the time, the Dong-gu district office, which is in charge of the area, only sent out text messages alerting the public to the risk of flooding in the nearby Sujeongcheon Stream, and did not enforce vehicle control, which exacerbated the damage. Safety authorities are also under criticism for being lax in making preparations for landslides that occur every year. The areas where four people died and two are missing in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang Province, were excluded from the landslide-prone areas even though they were surrounded by four landslide-prone areas, and were not included in the inspection of vulnerable areas conducted from February to April.

Experts point out that the country’s disaster management system, which is currently designed to allocate 70 percent of local government disaster management funds for recovery and only 30 percent for prevention, needs to be changed to a prevention-focused system to reduce the occurrence of such backward incidents.

Meanwhile, up to 300 millimeters more rain is expected to fall until Tuesday in the Chungcheong and southern regions, where heavy rainfall has been concentrated. The Korea Meteorological Administration has forecast 100 to 250 millimeters more rain in the mountain areas of Chungcheong Province, southern regions, and Jeju Island, and more than 300 millimeters more rain in the inland areas of Chungcheong Province, North Jeolla Province, and North Gyeongsang Province.