Korea urged to brace for disasters caused by climate change

Yoon orders new measures to cope with extreme weather

After Seoul and its surrounding areas were battered by record-breaking downpours over the last two days, experts are calling for preemptive mitigation and prevention efforts, warning that the country may witness more extreme weather events caused by climate change.

Nine people were killed in the torrential rainfall as of Wednesday — five in Seoul, three in surrounding Gyeonggi Province and one in Gangwon Province, while seven people went missing, according to the Central Disaster Safety and Countermeasures Headquarters. The authorities said 2,600 homes and residential buildings were destroyed, leaving at least 600 people displaced.

The accumulated rainfall across Seoul stood at 525 millimeters as of 11 a.m., while some parts of Gyeonggi Province were drenched with 532.5 millimeters of rain.

Presiding over a flood response meeting, President Yoon Suk-yeol offered an apology to the public for the inconveniences caused by the heavy rainfall, while ordering relevant ministries to take immediate measures for a swift recovery. “We can no longer call such extreme weather abnormal. We may see record-breaking levels again at any time,” he said, stressing that the country must map out new measures to cope with worse-than-expected scenarios.

“Dongjak District saw the highest amount of rainfall since the country began tracking precipitation levels in 1907,” an official at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) told The Korea Times. “But we have not included the figure in the official record since the data came from Dongjak District and not from the official weather observation center in Jongno District.”

The state weather agency viewed that the latest rainfall was somewhat unusual, considering that Korea’s annual rainy season occurs from late June through the end of July.

“The heavy downpour was brought by a rain band caused by a collision between dry, cold air from the north and a warm, humid air band from the south forming in the central region of Korea,” the official explained.

But he was cautious to link the extreme precipitation to climate change caused by global warming, saying that more data should be gathered to find a direct correlation between the two.

“However, they are not completely irrelevant. The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is increasing due to global warming, leading to a rise in ocean surface temperatures. And this could have some effect on the formation of precipitation in the summer monsoon season as well as on the formation of stationary fronts,” he said.

The unprecedented flooding was way over the volume the drainage system in Seoul could handle, according to disaster management experts, who urged that the city government should scale up its infrastructure to cope with similar disasters in the future.

“Disasters often occur without any warning signs, the very reason why we must be fully prepared in advance,” said Kong Ha-sung, a professor of fire and disaster prevention at Woosuk University. “In order to save more lives and mitigate the impact of disasters, investing in prevention is much more important than relief efforts.”

Kong added that authorities should improve the drainage system especially in Seoul’s Gangnam district, which is geographically vulnerable to floods.

“The neighborhood near Gangnam subway station is about 10 meters lower in altitude than surrounding areas, causing the area to flood very quickly. And the drainage system in the district can handle only up to 90 to 95 millimeters of rain per hour,” he said.

President Yoon Suk-yeol apologized to the nation Wednesday after heavy rains triggered massive flooding in southern Seoul this week and sparked criticism the capital city lacks adequate flood control measures.

Yoon offered the apology during a government meeting on the response to the flooding in Seoul and surrounding areas, which left nine people dead and seven missing.

“I pray for the victims and apologize on behalf of the government to the people who suffered inconveniences,” he said.

The downpours wreaked havoc in and around the capital starting Monday, submerging and stranding vehicles on roads, flooding homes in low-lying areas, and causing hundreds of people to evacuate to local schools and gyms.

Sections of railway and subway lines were suspended during the three-day period, although most restrictions had been lifted by Wednesday morning.

Yoon said the government must come up with fundamental measures to respond to similar events in the future even while carrying out emergency restoration work and assisting victims.

“I believe we need to actively use our cutting-edge digital technologies to constantly monitor water levels in all of the country’s waterways, conduct simulations and thus immediately activate warning systems,” he said.

“Relevant agencies and local governments must build a flood forecast and warning system that

covers all waterways, including rivers, main streams and tributaries, and use all of our power to minimize loss of life and property damage,” he said.

Yoon’s comments came a day after he visited a semi-basement apartment in Seoul where three family members, including a woman with a developmental disability, were killed in a flash flood

earlier this week.

Opposition slams Yoon

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) rapped President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday for remaining at home when massive rainfall caused serious flooding in Seoul and elsewhere earlier this week, moking him as an invisible “stealth” jet.

Presidential aides have said that Yoon oversaw anti-disaster efforts from home via telephone when record downpours, believed to be the heaviest in 115 years, triggered widespread flooding in southern Seoul on Monday night.

But critics, including the DP, have stressed that Yoon should have shown up at the disaster control center, instead of staying at home, to better direct efforts to bring the situation under control in the downpours that left 16 people dead or missing.

“The president was nowhere to be seen in the pandemonium,” DP floor leader Park Hong-keun told a party meeting. “This means that while the people were exposed to danger all night long, the country’s crisis management control tower was not functioning.

“The president said he responded to the crisis by phone without showing up, but is the president some kind of stealth fighter?” Park mocked, referring Yoon’s absence to the aircraft designed to avoid detection. Citing the reaction on social media that compared the country to a state of anarchy during the heavy rains, Park called on the Yoon administration to beef up its crisis management system going forward.

Yoon’s office has said that the president was briefed on and responded to the flood flash in real time and that the decision to stay at home was made to minimize the involvement of security and protocol officials in the emergency situation.