The death toll from the hurricane climbs as seven people drown in a flooded South Korean parking lot.
Typhoon Hinnamor tore through South Korea's southern industrial regions on Tuesday, leaving at least 10 people dead and hundreds homeless, according to authorities.According to a report released on Wednesday by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, seven of the fatalities were recorded from a single submerged parking lot beneath a residential complex in Pohang, the nation's southeast port city.According to the ministry report, the seven passengers became stuck trying to move their vehicles due to rising seas.
A wrecked car was being removed from an underground garage after being shut in by muddy waters, as seen on local station YTN.Two people are still missing after the violent storm, and one more person perished after being buried in a Gyeongju home that was struck by a landslide.As the military deploys amphibious vehicles and rescue efforts continue, the number of fatalities could increase.With gusts exceeding 154 kilometers per hour, or little over 95 miles per hour, the severe storm made landfall with wind speeds comparable to a Category 2 hurricane.
According to authorities, the storm hit the peninsula at around 4:50 a.m. local time and battered the industrial cities of Pohang, Gyeongju, and Ulsan in the southeast with strong winds and heavy rain before departing the peninsula at around 7:10 a.m. local time.Over 66,000 homes lost power, and 2,900 people were evacuated—mostly in the south of the country—with 45% of service restored as of 3 p.m. local time.Numerous flights were canceled by the typhoon, along with commercial and educational activities.
The typhoon-related power outage at POSCO's Pohang factory resulted in a brief byproduct gas release, according to POSCO, a South Korean steel manufacturer.Despite some of its factory being underwater, Ulsan-based shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries claimed there were no significant losses. To prevent damage, some of its ships were sent to the west coast; they would come home on Thursday.According to a representative for Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, there have been no accidents at the shipyard in the neighboring city of Changwon thus far, and production was paused on Tuesday morning as planned.
Following the death of a woman in her 70s who was carried away by floodwaters in Pohang on Tuesday, the nine fatalities were announced on Wednesday."Due to the amount of water here rising so quickly, this is where we've sadly seen the majority of fatalities, including among a group of people who appeared to have been trapped in an underground parking lot trying to retrieve their vehicles and were simply caught out by the speed of these rising waters, he said.
Although most of South Korea's typhoon warnings have been withdrawn, President Yoon Suk-yeol reportedly encouraged authorities to take measures until the typhoon has entirely passed.North Korea, which is next door, also prepared for typhoon damage by holding a two-day meeting to discuss disaster prevention efforts and releasing water from a dam close to its border with South Korea.South Korea has encouraged the North on numerous occasions to give warning before releasing water from the dam because doing so may cause floods downstream, but Pyongyang has resisted. What a disheartening story to hear as lives perished.
More than 4,700 individuals were compelled to leave their homes in search of safety during Hinnamnor, which also destroyed almost 12,000 dwellings and other structures. Almost 90,000 homes countrywide lost power, but most customers' supplies had been restored by Wednesday morning, according to authorities.
References
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/07/asia/typhoon-hinnamnor-south-korea-intl-hnk/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/storms-fires-seoul-south-korea-7ac05e01fbebb960c3aa1c7b49b24f23