Thousands Homeless, 85 Dead in S. Korean Storm

The second violent storm in South Korea in a week dumped record amounts of rainfall over the center of the country Wednesday, triggering floods and landslides that killed 85 people and left thousands homeless.

A tabulation by the Counter-Disaster Center in Seoul also listed 150 people injured and 35 missing and feared dead from the storm. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from low-lying areas.

Officials said they expect the casualty figures to rise sharply as more rain was forecast, with a tropical storm approaching from Taiwan.

That storm, which had been downgraded from a typhoon, is expected to strike the southern coast. Two people were reported killed in Taiwan after it struck there.

Weather officials said 22.5 inches of rain fell over the central village of Sochun in less than 24 hours. The previous one-day record was 21.5 inches measured in a southern coastal town in 1981.

“It’s from bad to worse,” an official at the weather center said, referring to Typhoon Thelma. That storm hit the southern coast July 15 and 16, leaving 123 people dead and 212 missing.

Most central areas of the country had an average 20 inches of rain in less than 48 hours Tuesday and Wednesday as a strong low pressure area remained straddled across the country.

Police said the 85 dead included 28 people killed by flood waters, 42 killed in landslides, 12 killed in the collapse of homes and buildings and three victims of flood-related accidents. Officials said at least 4,000 people were homeless.

Weather officials said the amount of rainfall in the first several days this week in the central area amounted to half the region’s average annual precipitation.

Worst hit were eight towns along the Kum River, whose upper streams overflowed, sending thousands of people in downstream areas fleeing to high lands, according to the officials.

The western port of Kunsan and several other towns near the estuary of the river flowing into the Yellow Sea were alerted for possible flooding.

Television footage showed vast paddy fields and residential areas submerged in muddy floodwaters. U.S. and South Korean military helicopters rescued many people from rooftops.

Thousands of people in Puyo on the west coast were evacuated as a tributary of the Kum River overflowed, submerging vast parts of the ancient city.