Seoul, Aug 9 (Representative) Residents in the South Korea capital remain nervous, as the state weather agency forecast yet another heavy spell of rain to hit the region until Wednesday. It forecast additional precipitation of 100 to 200 mm in the Seoul metropolitan area and some areas of the central region until Wednesday. If the weather forecasts come true, some districts of Seoul can have nearly half of the annual precipitation in a period of just several days this week.
The nation’s 30-year average annual precipitation is 1,306.3 mm. Yonhap news agency said Dongjak district received more rain than the city’s average total precipitation for the month of July in a single day. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said a total of 422 mm of rain fell in Shindaebang-dong of the southern Seoul district of Dongjak from 6 a.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday. In Seoul, the average monthly precipitation in July and August amounts to 414.4 mm and 348.2 mm, respectively, for the past 30 years until 2020, according to KMA data.
A disaster movie-like scene unfolded in southern Seoul on Tuesday morning, as a large number of cars abandoned the previous night by flood-stricken motorists were left unattended on streets, Yonhap said. The abandoned cars became roadblocks later Tuesday morning, triggering severe traffic jams throughout southern Seoul during the morning rush hours. President Yoon Suk-yeol visited a semi-basement apartment in Seoul on Tuesday where a flash flood the previous night killed a family of three.
The three victims were living in what is known as a banjiha — identical to the apartment featured in the Oscar-winning film “Parasite”. Yoon visited the apartment after presiding over an emergency government meeting. Eight people were reported killed and six missing in the country’s heaviest rainfall in 80 years. According to the police, the family in the banjiha consisted of a woman in her 40s, her younger sister, and the sister’s teenage daughter. The sister sought help as the heavy rains began flooding her home on Monday night, but all three were found dead when police and firefighting workers had finished draining the apartment.