SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday blamed authorities’ failure to observe catastrophe response guidelines because the demise toll from days of torrential rain rose to 40, together with a dozen individuals discovered lifeless in a submerged underpass.
Deluges have pummelled central and southern areas since Thursday because the wet season that began in late June reaches its peak. The inside ministry has additionally reported 9 individuals lacking and 34 injured throughout the nation.
Twelve deaths, together with three our bodies discovered in a single day, occurred in a tunnel in Cheongju, 110km (68 miles) south of Seoul, the place 16 automobiles, together with a bus, had been swamped by a flash flood on Saturday after a river levee collapsed. The incident fueled questions over South Korea’s efforts to stop and reply to flood harm. Some drivers who use the street often blamed the federal government for failing to ban entry to the underpass though floods had been extensively forecast. Yoon, simply again from an abroad journey, on Monday convened a catastrophe response assembly and conceded the state of affairs was made worse due to poor administration of weak areas.
“We’ve repeatedly emphasized access control over dangerous areas and preemptive evacuation since last year, but if basic principles of disaster response are not kept on the spot, it is difficult to ensure public safety,” Yoon advised the assembly.
Nearly 900 hearth, police and army officers took half within the underpass rescue operation, utilizing boats, underwater drones and different gear, in keeping with the inside ministry.
Seo Jeong-il, hearth chief in west Cheongju, advised a briefing on Monday that whereas search efforts continued there have been no indicators of extra victims within the remaining automobiles within the tunnel.
Floods have claimed dozens of lives throughout latest wet seasons as climate patterns have turn into extra excessive.
The authorities final 12 months vowed to take steps to higher address local weather change-induced disasters after the heaviest downpours in 115 years pounded Seoul, together with the glitzy district of Gangnam, leaving at the least 14 lifeless and flooding subways, roads and houses.
Yoon on Monday flew in a helicopter over some devastated areas. Earlier, he referred to as for utmost efforts to rescue any remaining victims and vowed assist for these affected, together with designating flood-hit areas as particular catastrophe zones.
“The government will restore everything, so don’t worry too much,” Yoon stated after assembly residents in Yecheon in North Gyeongsang province, an space hit by landslides the place 19 individuals died and eight stay lacking.
The state of affairs throughout the border in North Korea stays unclear, however in latest weeks state media has reported on heavy rainfall and referred to measures to guard crops in a rustic that has suffered from severe meals shortages.
At a briefing, the South’s Unification Ministry stated it had requested Pyongyang to inform Seoul of any plans to launch water from its Hwanggang Dam. In 2009, the discharge of water from the dam resulted in flooding downstream that killed six South Koreans. —Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
