They won’t give up, either. One person is still unaccounted for.
It has been over 48 hours since heavy rains forced a riverbank to collapse, flooding a key underpass and bringing all traffic to a complete stop.
The central, mountainous section of Chongju has seen the removal of thirteen bodies thus far from the tunnel. CCTV shows a panicked missing motorist trying to flee their submerged car in rescuers’ possession, but there has been no evidence of their body yet.
Another automobile is winched out as they continue their search, the power of the water having broken out its back glass.
This terrifying picture should serve as a wake-up call for South Korea. This nation, which until recently been spared from some of the extreme weather events observed by other, hotter countries, is beginning to feel the effects of climate change.
However, it is barely halfway through its monsoon season and has already accumulated more rainfall than is expected for the time of year.
Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, has declared that he will “completely overhaul” the nation’s response to severe weather because “these events will become more frequent.”
Mr. Yoon remarked, “We must acknowledge that climate change is taking place and deal with it.
Song Du-ho, 87, is sitting on his doorway in the little farming community of Edam, an hour distant, with his eyes closed, attempting to digest the destruction all around him.The floors of his small one-story home have been torn up, and his wet possessions are piled to the ceiling.
His garden is now covered in broken bookshelves and electrical gadgets, along with a large portion of his possessions. They are being disassembled by two troops so they can transport them away on a cart.
Mr. Song rises. “Hey! He yells at them, “Don’t throw away the metal; I’m going to sell the metal; throw away the remainder.
The rice and bean farmer’s home was flooded after Saturday’s torrential rain overwhelmed the dam that normally protects his rural village in North Chungcheong province, in South Korea. The water was up to his waist by the time rescue workers came for him in the middle of the night, along with his wife, who struggles with a bad back. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared when the water was coming in. I could have died,” he says. Mr Song is dazed. He’s lived in Edam for 40 years, and says he is well acclimatised to South Korea’s monsoon season, which runs from the end of June to the beginning of August.
But he says he has never experienced rain like that which fell this weekend, causing rivers to swell and land to slide down the dense mountainous terrain, burying homes and killing dozens. Mr Song knows it will take an awful lot of work to fix his place up, and it is probably beyond his capabilities. “I’m almost 90,” he says in despair. “What am I to do, where am I to go? We older people die where we live.”
Next door, 74-year old Han Chang Rae is squatting in the middle of her mud filled courtyard, dumping the contents of her now defunct fridge into bin bags. Even the mounds of kimchi and other pickled vegetables cannot be saved on this baking, humid day. Her chequered visor prevents the sweat from dripping down her face, as she motors around, barely taking the time to look up. “I have so much to do,” she says in anguish. In contrast to Mr Song, Ms Han only moved in 15 days ago, and is now binning belongings that never made it out of the box. She too is bewildered. “I’m 74 and have never experienced this kind of disaster”, she says.
“I don’t feel anything, and I’m just grateful I didn’t die,”
Because South Koreans are less accustomed to coping with the repercussions of a warming world, danger still looms with Tuesday’s forecast for even more intense downpour.
The monsoon season is no longer a normal part of summer for residents living in the farming village of Edam; instead, it is a season to be feared.
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