The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Search continues for those missing in torrential rain

Eight people missing, 11 confirmed dead, and authorities say casualties could rise

By Lee Jung-Youn

Published : Aug. 10, 2022 - 17:13

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Emergency services search and rescue personnel enter drains in southern Seoul on Wednesday in search of missing people. (Yonhap) Emergency services search and rescue personnel enter drains in southern Seoul on Wednesday in search of missing people. (Yonhap)
The search for those missing following Monday’s record-breaking downpour in Seoul and its surrounding areas continues, with eight people still unaccounted for as of 6 a.m. Thursday. Eleven have been confirmed dead, and hundreds remain displaced.

Three of the eight missing were lost in Seoul’s Seocho-gu district, including a woman who is reported to have been swept into a manhole. She was swept away with her brother, who was found dead around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

They were reportedly swept into the sewers when a manhole lid suddenly opened due to a countercurrent.

One missing person disappeared after being swept away by rapid currents while checking on his vehicle in an underground parking lot. A witness reported the incident immediately, and the fire department began searching at 11 p.m. Monday, but he is yet to be found. Another man went missing in a similar way near another underground parking lot.

Three people are reported missing from Gyeonggi Province. In Gwangju, two people were swept away by a flooded river, and in Namyangju, a teenager disappeared on her way home, swept away by a rapid stream.

Two people, a husband and wife, went missing together from Gangwon Province.

Eleven people in Seoul and surrounding areas died from house flooding, electrocutions, landslides, falling into opened sewers and a bus station collapse.

Four victims drowned in two semi-basement homes in Seoul, including a family of three in one and a middle-aged woman in another.

The authorities said that casualties from the downpour could rise as the clean-up of affected areas continue.

In addition, 982 people from 548 households were forced to leave their homes because of flooding, while a further 4,297 people from 2,042 households have temporarily evacuated.

Heavy rain warnings in Seoul and the metropolitan area were lifted Wednesday morning, with rain clouds moving southward toward North and South Chungcheong Provinces, southern Gangwon Province and North Gyeongsang Province.