Citizens debate whether Oh‘s ’bad luck with water‘ or his complacency on flood readiness is at fault

This week’s record rainfall wreaked havoc not only on the lives of many people, but also some animals.  Social media saw a flurry of postings about stranded animals on flooded streets such as wild ducks, feral cats and dogs.  One Instagram post uploaded on Tuesday by user @assa_candy shared a plea for help from a pet owner whose puppy got swept away in the heavy rain.  "My puppy was swept away in the rain at the Catholic University of Korea. It’s hard to know

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in South Korea reached a four-month high Wednesday, as the nation grapples with the fast spread of a highly contagious omicron subvariant. The country added 151,792 new COVID-19 infections, the highest since April 13, when it reported 195,387 cases, bringing the total caseload to 20,845,973, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Of the new cases, 615 were from overseas. Wednesday's figure is up from 149,897 the previous day and 1

Sixteen people have been confirmed dead or missing and more than 2,500 homes and buildings were flooded in this week's record rainfall that battered Seoul and elsewhere in the central and eastern regions, officials said Wednesday. A total of 525 millimeters of rain fell in Seoul from Monday to Wednesday morning, while Yangpyeong, 45 kilometers east of Seoul, recorded an accumulated 526.2 mm of rain during the period, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). Nine people were ki

A total of nine people have died and six others remain missing as the Seoul capital region is battered by its heaviest rainfall seen in 115 years, government officials announced Tuesday evening. According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, five people in Seoul, three people in Gyeonggi Province and one person in Gangwon Province have died due to the heavy rain, while four people in Seoul and two others in Gyeonggi Province have been declared missing, as of 6 p.m.

  While torrential rains were punishing Seoul on Monday night, social media exploded with users sharing images and videos of flash floods swamping roads, subway stations and buses. Here are some of the viral photos and tweets from the chaotic evening. 1) Identity of the “Seocho-dong guru” remains in mystery  A man wearing a suit and using his smartphone while sitting on the roof of his submerged car in Seocho-dong, Gangnam-gu, shocked many on Monday evening. The exa

A subway line running through the north of Seoul was suspended temporarily early Tuesday evening as rain intensified.  The Seoul metropolitan office said nine stops on Line No. 3 from Samsong to Daehwa that travel across Goyang, a city in Gyeonggi Province, had to stop operation for an hour from 5:40 p.m. In northwestern Seoul and other cities in northern Gyeonggi Province, several roads were closed due to flooding starting at around 6 p.m. The downpour, which the weather aut

South Korea may experience the third rainband in before autumn

Lying low near the Han River, Seoul’s affluent neighborhoods are geologically vulnerable and plans to beef up drainage are moving slow

Hundreds of thousands of commuters on Tuesday trudged through Seoul’s battered roads and public transit pummeled by record-breaking downpour. According to the Seoul metropolitan office, some of the roads along the Han River that cut across the middle of the capital had to be closed for several hours this morning for safety. “Water still covers roads in many places, and they are just not passable,” a Seoul official told The Korea Herald on Tuesday morning. Most of the roads

Seoul and surrounding areas expected to see up to 300 millimeters of more rain through Thursday

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Tuesday morning visited an apartment complex in Sadang-dong in Seoul to survey the area, after torrential rain hit Seoul and the surrounding areas from late Monday into the next morning. As part of the city’s emergency response, Oh inspected the embankment installed in the Kukdong Apartment complex that collapsed due to a landslide, according to the Seoul city government. There have been no reports of injury as a result of the collapse. Residents living in the

A video of a person swimming on flooded roads spread online, drawing fire from internet users as heaviest downpour in 80 years struck throughout Seoul metropolitan region.　 A video titled “Sillim-dong Phelps” -- the title alludes to the US swimming great Michael Phelps -- was posted on online Monday. The six-second-long video showed a person wearing a red swimsuit, purple swimming cap and flippers on a flooded road in Sillim-dong, Seoul. Netizens pointed out that there was a risk o

Three people were found dead in a flooded semi-basement apartment in Seoul on Tuesday, after the heaviest rainfall in 80 years wreak havoc on many parts of the city.  According to local police, a 47-year-old woman, her older sister and 13-year-old daughter were trapped in the submerged home in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, western Seoul and likely died by drowning.  The police recovered their bodies around 11:30 p.m. on Monday. They had received a report of flooding in the house from

More than 1,000 vehicles sustained water damage due to the heavy rains that hit Seoul and surrounding regions late Monday and early Tuesday. According to the insurance industry’s figures, more than 1,000 cases of vehicle flooding have been reported as of Tuesday morning. Some larger insurers, including Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and DB Insurance received hundreds of reports, with damages amounting to several billion won, or millions of dollars. 　 Small insurance companies are