South Korea reels from monsoon rains as floods and landslides kill 26

Powerful monsoon rains swept across South Korea, burying homes, knocking down trees, canceling flights and trains, and cutting power to tens of thousands of residents, officials said Saturday.

The downpour caused flooding and landslides in the country’s central region, leaving at least 26 people dead and 10 others missing as of late Saturday local time, the Interior Ministry said, adding that the rainfall was expected to intensify in the coming days.

Heavy monsoon rains are typical in South Korea in the summer, and its mountainous topography makes it susceptible to landslides. But the number of casualties reported Saturday was unusual.

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“The death toll is surprisingly high,” Cheong Tae Sung, an expert in flooding with South Korea’s National Disaster Management Research Institute, said in an interview, adding that there were a couple of possible reasons for this.

One is that in recent years rainfall has tended to be concentrated in urban areas, near the large cities of Busan and Seoul. This time, much of the recent rains fell in rural parts of Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces, which can be more vulnerable in part because they are more difficult to monitor and reach.

Cheong added that, as climate change warms South Korea, rain also appears to be coming in more intense bursts. That shift has made preparing for floods harder.

At least five of the people killed Friday and Saturday died inside homes and buildings that had collapsed in landslides, and one person was buried in earth and sand, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Another victim died after a road collapsed underneath.

Several dams in the central part of the country began the controlled release of water Saturday, and one overflowed, prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents. A passenger train derailed Friday night when soil entered a railroad track, although no casualties were reported.

More than 5,500 residents have evacuated their homes since Thursday, according to the ministry.

The Korea Meteorological Administration said Saturday that the rain would get stronger over the next two days, mainly in the central and southwestern parts of the country.