The death toll from the deadly flooding in Korea continues to rise:
Four more bodies have been recovered from a flooded underground road in central South Korea, bringing the number of people dead or missing in recent downpours to 49, officials said Monday.
The Osong underground roadway in the central city of Cheongju was flooded Saturday when a nearby river overflowed after an embankment was brought down by rising water levels due to heavy rain.
Four more bodies were recovered overnight, including the driver of a submerged bus, bringing the death toll to 13. Five people were previously found dead in the bus.
Through a search operation, fire authorities found 16 vehicles waterlogged in the underpass, one more than what they had previously said.
Rescuers continued to search for one more person reported missing but were having difficulties due to water mixed with mud at waist height, clogging the central underpass area.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The blame game for the deadly tunnel flooding in South Korea is already beginning. I wonder how long before the Korean left tries to blame President Yoon for this?:
Local authorities in Osong, Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, are facing widespread criticism over a lack of execution of safety measures in response to a flooded tunnel in the area which has left at least nine people dead as of Sunday afternoon.
Korea Times
Critics view that the accident, which occurred amid the days-long torrential rain, could have been prevented had the local municipalities taken preemptive measures such as closing the tunnel and establishing other traffic controls.
According to the Korea Fire Agency, Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in Osong was submerged around 8:45 a.m., Saturday, after the banks of the nearing Miho River collapsed due to heavy rainfall in the region.
The four-lane, 430-meter-long underground passage was flooded by some six tons of water in just three minutes, leaving 15 vehicles ― including a public bus and two trucks ― trapped inside. It is unclear exactly how many individuals were trapped, but the police said at least 11 individuals were reported to be missing in the tunnel, excluding nine survivors who were rescued soon after the flooding as of Saturday.
You can read more at the link.
Horrible tragedy happening in South Korea with the torrential monsoon rains hitting the country:
Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains have killed 37 people nationwide and left nine people missing, while thousands have evacuated their homes due to rain damage, authorities said Sunday.
The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters said 37 people had been killed in the aftermath of the heavy rains that have pounded the country since last week, while nine others remained missing as of 6 a.m.
The death toll includes nine bodies authorities recovered from a bus trapped in a flooded underground tunnel in the central town of Osong.
The 685-meter-long underground roadway was flooded in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, the previous day when a nearby river overflowed after an embankment was brought down by rising water levels due to heavy rain.
Casualties from the underpass flooding are expected to rise further as a rescue operation continues for 15 vehicles and several people believed to be trapped inside the tunnel. Most fatalities were reported in the southeastern province of North Gyeongsang, where 19 people died largely due to landslides and housing collapses, and eight others remained missing.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Here is an interesting read in the Korea Times about how solar energy farms in South Korea are destroying the environment and impacting the livelihood of farmers:
Thousands of solar energy facilities have been built in rural mountainous regions in recent years, in line with a government policy to increase the ratio of renewable energy sources in the country’s energy mix.
Korea Times
However, many of them have become danger zones as the removal of trees for their construction has heightened the possibility of landslides, becoming a major headache for local residents during the nation’s annual rainy season. What is of more concern is that the installations are feared to end up destroying the landscape and environment through massive deforestation.
Seokdong Village in Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province, is one such village, where over 25,400 square meters of forest there were cut down to install solar panels in 2016.
But since then, soil has been washed away from the facilities during each summer’s rainy season, and in July this year two meters of stone embankments and 20 meters of barbed wire fencing collapsed.
“As the rain poured in July, the solar facilities collapsed and the village’s rice paddies were completely flooded. Fortunately, nobody was on site and hurt but if there had been, it would have caused many casualties,” Lim Jun-hyung, the village head, told The Korea Times, Friday. “The company that installed the panels won’t come to fix it for months, no matter how many times we call them. I can’t even stand the sight of those panels now.”
You can read more at the link, but what is ironic is that the Korean government is blaming global warming for the flooding and not the fact that huge swaths of forest were cut down to put in these solar farms. I also find it interesting that these farmers are not protesting and blockading these solar farms like the farmers blockading the THAAD site are which has done absolutely nothing to their crops.
By the way I am actually impressed the Korea Times actually published an article like this critical of solar farms. Generally it seems the media doesn’t want to report anything negative about green energy projects.
