South Korea has been hit by heavy rains for several days. In the early morning of this morning (17), a serious flood occurred in Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province, in the central and western part of the country. A dike under construction suddenly collapsed. In just one hour, the entire village of Xiapuyi was engulfed by floods. Dozens of households were isolated and cut off from water, electricity, and transportation. Some cattle were buried alive by mudslides. The disaster was shocking.
According to Yonhap News Agency and JoongAng Ilbo, since late at night on the 16th, more than 300 mm of heavy rain has continued to fall in South Chungcheong Province. At 6 o’clock this morning, the Xiapuyi-ri radio station issued an alarm, and residents hurriedly fled their homes. At that time, there was no water on the ground; however, only half an hour later, a large amount of flood water poured in from the collapsed dike. By 7 o’clock, the entire village was flooded, including the village hall, farmland, and houses.
Most of the people in the village are elderly, and the fire department urgently mobilized rubber boats for rescue and used drones to help locate the trapped people. More than 80% of the approximately 50 local residents were over 70 years old. Fortunately, they all escaped and were temporarily placed in temporary shelters.
The victims pointed out that the sudden flooding of the village was related to the dike construction project. A 77-year-old resident said that he saw the collapse of the dike with his own eyes when he inspected the farmland and warned other residents. Many people believe that the disaster should be attributed to improper construction and bluntly said “this is a man-made disaster.”
Not only that, in Fenglinli in the same county, heavy rains also caused landslides. A cattle shed that had been in operation for 30 years was buried by landslides. More than 10 cows were buried alive. Although the owner tried to rescue them with a shovel, he was unable to do anything because the heavy machine could not enter. Due to the dual impact of landslides and floods, the area has fallen into an isolated island state with complete water and power outages and almost paralyzed communications.
The authorities said that as of now, a total of three people have died in Chungcheongnam-do, including vehicles flooded and viaduct collapse accidents, and thousands of people have been evacuated urgently. Authorities are stepping up reconstruction efforts. South Korea’s South Chungcheong Province Governor Kim Tae-keum has ordered a full mobilization of heavy machinery for repairs and required evacuation centers to be staffed with dedicated personnel to handle daily necessities and psychological care.
