Typhoon-Spawned Storm Hits S. Korea--40 Dead or Missing

Heavy downpours spawned by the remnants of Typhoon Gladys inundated coastal areas Friday, causing flooding and landslides that left more than 40 people dead or missing, officials said.

The storm, which packed sustained winds of up to 48 m.p.h., forced 15,000 people out of their homes with as much as 24 inches of rain in the Kyungsang province area.

About 22,000 vacationers were evacuated from campsites as the storm struck.

Typhoon Gladys caught most South Koreans unprepared after it suddenly veered early Friday from an expected strike on neighboring Japan. But weather officials said the typhoon lost much of its power after hitting land.

Forecasters said the storm was expected to die over the Yellow Sea by today after traveling across southern South Korea.

The National Anti-Disaster Relief Center said 26 people have been confirmed dead, 16 others were missing and at least 60 were injured. State television KBS late Friday said that more than 40 people were dead or missing and 70 were injured. It said the casualty toll was expected to rise.

Telephone lines were cut and land and rail traffic was disrupted.

Center officials said a main highway linking Seoul with Pusan, the nation’s largest port, was closed by a landslide. Most domestic airline flights were canceled although international flights were unaffected, they said.

Weather officials said 22 inches of rain soaked Pusan, Korea’s largest port, in 18 hours Friday, the heaviest single day’s rainfall since the Pusan weather office opened in 1904.

Eight people were confirmed killed and one missing in Pusan, reports said. A man was killed when struck by a steel ladder blown from a 15-story building under construction, they said.

Other victims in the city were buried in cave-ins or drowned in flooding, they added.

Floods were waist-high in Pusan and other coastal cities. Television showed people wading through muddy waters, carrying personal belongings on their heads. Cars drifted in swift currents.

Center officials said five people were killed when their homes were buried in landslides in Changwon, 31 miles west of Pusan. Two people were drowned in rain-swollen rivers in nearby Masan, they said.

A 950,000-kilowatt nuclear reactor north of Pusan was temporarily shut down after high winds blew debris into its cooling tower protector, the news agency Yonhap said.