Community | July 27, 2011 | 9 comments

Torrential rain and mudslides kill dozens in South Korea

source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191098.html

JanforGore
Torrential rainfall pummelled South Korea killing at least 36 people Tuesday and Wednesday. Several buildings collapsed early Wednesday in one town 100 kilometers northeast of Seoul, which claimed 13 lives, 10 of which were university students on a volunteering trip.

A mountain mudslide in Seoul caused 17 deaths. Reports of other casualties are being reported from around the country. South Korea's emergency responders suggest global warming is changing weather patterns.

Bloggers are blaming Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon for damage in the capital. He's reduced the flood preparedness budget by nearly 90 percent from 2005.
South Korea's massive Four River Project seeks to control flooding, but is not focussesd on protecting watersheds, which is where environmenalists believe attention is needed.

Most of the damage from flooding is not just because of global warming, but because the government didn't prepared well. The Korean government and Seoul city tend to seek remedies to flooding with infrastructure projects. But specific environmental measures and forest management are the best solution.

Record downpours across the country have flooded more than 720 homes and burried another 20 in mudslides say initial reports. 17 roads in the capital closed. 66,000 homes lost electricity.

An average of 863 millimeters of rain falls during South Korea's monsoon season. This weeks's intense rain has almost doubled the average. And it's not over, another 250 millimeters are forecasted to hit South Korea on Thursday.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS3DTE8x4wk
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9 comments // Torrential rain and mudslides kill dozens in South Korea // Video

  • Patricia_Jaderborg
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • And the same deniers who have nothing to counter with regarding all of these extreme events happening at once with deluges and extreme snowfalls in concert with mega droughts in erratic patterns obviously know nothing of the hydrologic cycle or what climate change and other effects (mega dams for one) are being made known to alter it that were predicted. Just keep marking down you cowards. It is obvious you know the truth, but the little comfortable bubbles you live in are more important than what this is doing to the planet and the lives of others. Disgusting.

    • 10 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-south-korea-landslides-20110...
      South Korea on Thursday struggled to recover from the nation's heaviest rainfall in decades — a torrential two-day downpour that triggered landslides and flooding, killed at least 42 people and left countless others missing or stranded.

      Military officials scrambled to retrieve explosives swept away by the storm. In one incident, a military ammunitions depot collapsed under a landslide, and officials said only half of the explosives — including 93 land mines — had been found.

      They also worked to retrieve numerous Korean War-era land mines that were dislodged by the storm from grounds near an air-defense unit outside Seoul. The officials warned residents that 10 of those mines remained missing.

      "Chances are low that the mines will be spotted," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters.

      By the hour, a water-weary nation continued to take toll of its dead, who included 10 university students volunteering at an elementary school and the 63-year-old wife of a department store magnate who drowned while investigating the flooding in the basement of her upscale home.

      Dozens of homes in hillside areas of metropolitan Seoul were damaged by cascading mudflows that officials say killed at least 17 people. In the city of Chuncheon, about 50 miles outside Seoul, landslides swept away several residential buildings, reportedly killing 13 people — including the 10 students — and injuring 26 others.

      Elsewhere, a river tributary just outside Seoul overflowed Thursday, killing seven. In another nearby community, a factory roof collapsed in the rain, killing three workers and injuring two.

      Late Thursday, thousands of firefighters, soldiers and other emergency workers used heavy machinery and shovels to comb water-clogged communities for the missing, with some teams carrying out bodies on stretchers.

      As emergency sirens blared around the clock, the sudden deluge paralyzed Seoul, closing schools and businesses, flooding subways stations and knocking over pedestrians with torrents of water.

      More at the link

    • 10 months ago
  • Warren_Merrill
  • AJILIVIZION
    • +1
      AJILIVIZION  
    • Image

    • I wonder how prepared Kim Jong il is to handle the effects of Climate Change. I know this is serious stuff, but I've been dying to use this gif. Its unbelievable that the leader of South Korea cut the flood preparedness budget by 90%. He might as well just scrap the whole thing and tell everyone to hope for the best.

    • 10 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • http://current.com/community/93360710_extreme-snowfall-blankets-parts-of-south-a...

      A definite pattern has emerged in regards to extremes regarding flooding and drought. The question now is when the hell are we going to get SERIOUS about addressing it? We don't have time anymore for these BS games with deniers, "skeptics," teabaggers, oil shills, politicians and the usual suspects trying to divert our eyes from what is clearly emerging and agreed upon by 97% of the world's scientists. And you can bet I will keeping tabs on the global picture and posting about it.

      Shame on the US Congress and governments of the world doing nothing to address the most urgent crisis we now face this century.

    • 10 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • Cutting funds for preparedness is foolhardy and irresponsible in the face of the evidence mounting that the effects of climate change augmenting these events will only lead to more extreme events where such preparedness is vital to preserve life and ecosystems.

    • 10 months ago
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