From here:
Early this morning at 12:10 AM mudslides occurred burying 4 buildings including bed & breakfasts and restaurants in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.
Approximately 40 tourists were buried by the landslides, 6 of whom died.
What a tragic end to a vacation.
It took me more than 2 hours to drive from Gimpo to Itaewon yesterday. It seems like the rain just continues to increase in intensity and duration when it should be tapering off. I hope it lets up soon because as the condition of the roads and mountains gets worse it makes accidents like this all the more likely.
Update: Gangnam Station and Sadang Station have both been closed. Looking at some of the pictures I am not surprised.
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Blah. I was supposed to take my car up to Yongsan today to get it shipped to the states but seeing how flooded the streets are up in Seoul, and after receiving a call from a friend who works up there regarding the traffic, I postponed it till next week.
Looks like non-stop heavy thunderstorms and rain until Friday morning. It’s coming down really hard right now…
Good thing the rainy season is over, as the weather service assured us over a week ago, on Sunday, July 10th . . .
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
A a chunk of Gangnam appears to be underwater. Tons of pics here:
http://saramvirus.com/50116778861
Can someone confirm if this is irony or not?
Today I’ve decided to not go to an indoor swimming pool near Kangnam Station because of all the flooding.
That’s ironic, right?
Either way, this sucks.
Enjoy the free facilities while they last, no skimpy sunbathing outfits though
Ten years ago, it would have been 100 campers dead. Many people were still camping on the banks of rivers at this time of year back then.
I am very sorry to hear of the mudslides.
Out in Seocho-gu, Seoul Arts Center had a large mudslide behind it, close to the temple behind it and there were rocks, tree branches and mud in the middle of the highway that runs in front of the facility. The lower shops were also flooded with muddy water lapping about on the inside. It is a real mess like I have never seen before.
I wonder if any building around the temple behind the Arts Center caused an increase in erosion, thus causing the mudslide?
re#3 [Good thing the rainy season is over, as the weather service assured us over a week ago, on Sunday, July 10th . . .]
The weather service is still following Koreas OLD myths (Gangneun and his girlfriend in heaven who dopped her ball of wool, and started crying (the rain) he came down to earth to get some wool and gave it to her and she STOPPED CRYING ON JULY 7th).
The rain will continue for another month (as it did last year) [Korean weather is predictable – the same each year)
it was on CHUSEOK (September 22nd 2010) when it rained so much it flooded Gwanghwamun and Gwanghwamun station in 2010.
The rain finally stopped only the week AFTER Chuseok in 2010 (and 2009 and 2008 and 2007….)
In other words, one more month of rain to come.
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