Death toll from South Korea rains rises to 16
Two people died and as many went missing in the resort town of Gapyeong on Sunday after a landslide engulfed houses and flooding swept away vehicles.
The interior ministry said eight people were discovered dead and six were reported missing in the southern town of Sancheong on Saturday after heavy rainfall caused flash floods and landslides.
The overall death toll stood at 16 as of 4pm local time on Sunday, The Korea Herald reported, citing fire authorities.
Damaged vehicles are seen after heavy rainfall in Gapyeong, South Korea, on 20 July 2025 (AP)
President Lee Jae Myung ordered the worst-hit areas, mostly in the south of the country, to be declared special disaster zones, which would entitle them to government support for damage recovery and relief.
Interior minister Yoon Ho Jung asked local authorities to 'mobilise all available resources' to carry out 'swift emergency restoration work' after the government launched a multi-agency recovery effort.
Mr Yoon announced that a prompt damage assessment would be launched to develop restoration plans for damaged facilities, including homes, commercial buildings and roads.
'The ministry and local governments need to ensure that the displaced residents staying in temporary shelters do not face any inconvenience by providing a sufficient amount of relief supplies and making their utmost effort in emergency restoration to help evacuees return to their normal lives as quickly as possible,' he said.
Houses collapsed from a landslide are seen in Sancheong, South Korea, on 19 July 2025 (AP)
Last week, three people were found dead in a submerged car and another person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul. The saturated soil had increased the risk of landslides even in areas receiving relatively modest rainfall.
The downpours swept through South Chungcheong, South Jeolla and South Gyeongsang regions this past week, with rainfall exceeding 500mm breaking daily rainfall records in July and forcing the evacuation of at least 3,840 people from their homes, the interior ministry said.
The rain stopped in most of South Korea on Sunday and heavy rain alerts were subsequently lifted, the ministry added.
This period of heavy rainfall was expected to be followed by a heat wave, the country's official weather forecaster said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Flash flooding prompts rescues in New Mexico mountain village
RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) — Another afternoon of heavy rainfall Thursday prompted flash flooding in the mountain village of Ruidoso, forcing the closure of roads and the rescue of at least five people who were trapped by the rushing water. The southern New Mexico community has been reeling this summer, with afternoon thunderstorms bringing more rain than the surrounding mountainsides can handle. Past wildfires have stripped the hills of trees and vegetation, leaving the Ruidoso area vulnerable to repeated flooding. It was less than three weeks ago that massive flooding killed three people and damaged hundreds of homes, resulting in state and federal disaster declarations. On Thursday, residents shared videos on social media that showed walls of muddy water coursing down creeks and over roads, ripping apart a mobile home and toppling trees along the way. Authorities were blocking traffic to keep vehicles out of the water as onlookers watched from higher ground. Forecasters with the National Weather Service routinely have been issuing flash-flood watches and warnings as the summer rainy season is in full force. They reported Thursday that one stretch of the Rio Ruidoso had risen to roughly 12.5 feet (3.81 meters) as a result of the burn-scar flooding. Flood watches also were issued Thursday for parts of northern New Mexico around burn scars left by the 2022 Calf Canyon Hermit's Peak blazes.
Washington Post
a day ago
- Washington Post
Glacial floods alert issued for northwest Pakistan with more heavy rain forecast
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan on Saturday warned of glacial flooding in the northwest with more rain forecast for the area in the coming week. Downpours are heavier in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province than the same period last year, prompting weather advisories and alerts for flooding from glacial lake outbursts, said Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the local disaster management authority.
WIRED
a day ago
- WIRED
The Texas Floods Were a Preview of What's to Come
Jul 26, 2025 7:00 AM Mounting evidence shows no US state is safe from the flooding that ravaged Texas' Kerr Country. Community members grieve during a candlelight vigil to honor the lives lost in the flash floods that claimed more than 120 lives on July 11, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. Photograph:This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The country watched in horror as torrential rain drenched Texas earlier this month, sweeping at least 135 people to their death. Kerr County alone lost 107, including more than two dozen children at Camp Mystic. From afar, it would be easy, even tempting, to think that floods like these could never happen to you. That the disaster is remote. It's not. As details of the tragedy have come into focus, the list of contributing factors has grown. Sudden downpours, driven by climate change. The lack of a comprehensive warning system to notify people that the Guadalupe River was rising rapidly. Rampant building in areas known to flood, coupled with incomplete information about what places might be at risk. These are the same elements that could trigger a Kerr County type of catastrophe in every state in the country. It's a reality that has played out numerous times already in recent years, with flooding in Vermont, Kentucky, North Carolina and elsewhere, leaving grief and billions of dollars in destruction in its wake. 'Kerr County is an extreme example of what's happening everywhere,' said Robert Freudenberg, vice president of energy and environmental programs at the Regional Plan Association. 'People are at risk because of it, and there's more that we need to be doing.' The most obvious problem is we keep building in areas prone to flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, produces readily available maps showing high-risk locales. Yet, according to the latest data from the nonprofit climate research firm First Street Foundation, 7.9 million homes and other structures stand in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, which designates a location with 1 percent or greater chance of being inundated in any given year. FEMA Flood Zone Top 10 Source: First Street Foundation In Louisiana, a nation-leading 23 percent of properties are located in a FEMA flood zone. In Florida, it's about 17 percent. Arkansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska are perhaps less expected members of the top 10, as is New Jersey, which, with New York City, saw torrential rain and flooding that killed two people earlier this month. Texas ranks seventh in the country, with about 800,000 properties, or roughly 6.5 percent of the state's total, sitting in a flood zone. Kerr County officials have limited authority to keep people from building in these areas, but even when governments have the ability to prevent risky building projects, they historically haven't. Although one study found that some areas are finally beginning to curb floodplain development, people keep building in perilous places. 'There's an innate draw to the water that we have, but we need to know where the limits are,' said Freudenberg. 'In places that are really dangerous, we need to work toward getting people out of harm's way.' Kerr County sits in a region known as Flash Flood Alley, and at least four cabins at Camp Mystic sat in an extremely hazardous 'floodway.' Numerous others stood in the path of a 100-year flood. When the Christian summer camp for girls underwent an expansion in 2019, the owners built even more cabins in the water's path. 'It's an unwillingness to think about what the future—and the present—have in store for us,' said Rob Moore, director of the Water and Climate Team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, about Americans' tradition of floodplain development. 'It's a reluctance to own up to the reality we live in.' Many people don't even know they are in harm's way. According to the NRDC, 14 states have no flood disclosure laws, and in eight they deem the laws 'inadequate.' FEMA maps are also flawed. For one, they can be politically influenced, with homeowners and communities often lobbying to be excluded in order to avoid insurance mandates and potential building costs. And experts say the science underpinning the maps is lagging too. FEMA 'only maps main river channels and coastal storm surge areas,' explained Jeremy Porter, the head of climate implications research at First Street Foundation. The agency, he added, specifically doesn't model heavy rainfall, isn't great about indicating the risk of urban flooding, and is behind on accounting for climate change. First Street Flood Zone Top 10 Source: First Street Foundation First Street built a flood model that tries to fill in those gaps. It found that 17.7 million people are at risk of a 100-year flood, a number that's more than double what FEMA's hazard area state rankings also change, with mountainous areas susceptible to inland flash flooding jumping up the list. West Virginia moves into first, with a staggering 30 percent of properties built in flood-prone areas. Kentucky climbs from 19th to sixth. Texas remains at seventh, but the portion of properties at risk goes to 15 percent. In Kerr County, FEMA's maps showed 2,560 properties (6.5 percent) in a flood zone. First Street's model nearly doubled that. 'There's a ton of unknown risk across the country,' said Porter, who says better maps are among the most important goals that policymakers can and should work toward. First Street has partnered with the real estate website Redfin to include climate risk metrics in its listings. Rob Moore says political will is essential to making that type of systemic change when it comes to not only flooding, but other climate risks, such as wildfires or coastal erosion. Strengthening building codes and restricting development in high-risk areas will require similar fortitude. 'Governments and states don't want to tell developers to not put things in a wetland, not put things in a floodplain,' he said. 'We should be telling people don't put them in a flatland, don't build in a way that your home is going to be more susceptible to wildfire.' Until then, hundreds of communities across the country could—and likely will—be the next Kerr County.
