It is monsoon season in Korea, but rainfall broke records Monday. The capital city of South Korea endured up to 19 inches of rain in just fifteen hours. The crisis happened during rush hour; many were stranded and had to wade in thigh-high deep water to find safety. As a result, some people were sucked into manholes after the covers were blown off by the force of the water surging below. One body that had washed away from North Korea was discovered in the Han river at the South Korean border.
SEOUL — Some of the heaviest rainfall in decades struck the Seoul area overnight, flooding homes, streets and subway stations, and killing at least nine people, South Korean officials said on Tuesday.
Three of the dead, two sisters in their 40s and a 13-year-old girl, were found early Tuesday as emergency workers pumped out the water that had flooded their semi-basement home in southern Seoul. Another was a municipal employee, apparently electrocuted while removing a tree that had fallen onto a sidewalk, the police said.
In addition to the nine confirmed deaths, officials said six people were missing after floodwaters pulled them into manholes, underground passages or streams.
Global heating is adding additional moisture into the atmosphere that falls down as unprecedented rainfall in natural disaster events such as monsoons.
The heavy rainfall is not over, and 11 additional inches are predicted to fall through Tuesday.
Several rounds of heavy rain will hit Seoul Tuesday night and continue through Thursday morning before ending Thursday afternoon. An additional 300 millimeters (11.8 inches) will be possible over the already flooded areas before finally ending. The rain may add to further flooding, and mudslides are possibleSeoul typically averages 348 millimeters (13.7 inches) of rain in August -- the wettest month of the year there. Several locations recorded this much rainfall in just one day.Many countries across East Asia are now experiencing more intense daily rainfall, with summer monsoons expected to grow stronger and more unpredictable as the Earth warms, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Climate news is just exploding with examples of the climate breaking down. I don’t mean to be so prolific in sharing this news. I imagine there will be a time soon when I simply can’t keep up.