16 dead, missing as heavy rains batter Seoul, surrounding areas

FILE: Dongjak Bridge, Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea (Photo: yeoul Shin/Unsplash)

SEOUL – Sixteen people have been confirmed dead or missing and more than 2,500 homes and buildings were flooded in this week’s record rainfall that battered Seoul and elsewhere in the central and eastern regions, officials said Wednesday.

A total of 525 millimeters (mm) of rain fell in Seoul from Monday to Wednesday morning, while Yangpyeong, 45 kilometers east of Seoul, recorded an accumulated 526.2 mm of rain during the period, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

Nine people were killed — five in Seoul, three in Gyeonggi Province, and one in Gangwon Province — while seven others went missing, four of them from Seoul and three others from Gyeonggi Province, and 17 were injured, according to government data.

A total of 2,676 houses and buildings were inundated, most of them in Seoul.

About 570 people from 398 households, mostly from the wider Seoul area, have been displaced, which left them staying at local schools and gyms. Around 1,253 people from 724 households across the country have temporarily evacuated, officials said.

The three-day downpours also left many public facilities out of service, with six cases of flooded railroads reported in the wider Seoul area, and caused a temporary suspension of services in sections of some railway and subway lines.

Much of the disrupted public services were back on track as of early Wednesday, including the operation of the Seoul Subway Line.

Restriction of the entire Seoul section of the Dongbu Expressway that runs through the eastern area of the capital city was lifted as of 7 a.m.

Authorities, however, closed sections of some highways in Seoul as of Wednesday morning, including the Olympic and Gangbyeon Northern highways that directly run through the city.

The KMA said it has lifted the downpour warning in the wider Seoul area and Incheon, west of Seoul, as of early Wednesday.

The agency, however, maintained a heavy rain warning for Chungcheong Province in the central region, where precipitation may reach between 50 and 80 mm per hour.