Recent landslides triggered by rainfall in South Korea

In the last few days South Korea has been hit by very heavy rainfall, triggering landslides that have had a substantial impact.  The recent heavy rainfall comes on the back of a 42 day long period of monsoon rainfall.  In common with other parts of Asia, most notably Nepal and China, South Korea is suffering an unusually intense monsoon this year.  Incidentally, it is likely that this rainfall will be causing substantial levels of loss in North Korea as well, but of course there is little information available about this.

Yesterday, two significant fatal landslides were reported in South Korea.  In Gapyeong three generations of the same family were killed in a holiday home.  The family were all New Zealand citizens.

The aftermath of the landslide at Gapyeong in South Korea, which killed three people. Image from AP via Internewscast.

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Elsewhere, three workers were killed when a landslide destroyed a factory.  I have not been able to track down the location of this event as yet.

News reports in Korean suggest other landslide fatalities:

• A landslide occurred in Hwabong in Gyeonggi Province in which a man died.
• A woman died in a landslide at Umjeong, in North Chungcheong Province.
• In Songak in Chungnam, two men are reported to be missing.

The image below shows the aftermath of a landslide at Juksani in Gyeonggi Province:-

The landslide at Juksani in Gyeonggi Province. Image via TBS Korea.

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Unfortunately further heavy rainfall is forecast, so further landslides are possible.

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Quickslide 1: Rest and be Thankful again…

Heavy rainfall in Scotland yesterday triggered another large landslide that has blocked the important A83 trunk road at Rest and be Thankful.  Judging by the images this might be the largest of the set of landslides in this long sequence of events.

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Quickslide 2: an urban landslide in Mumbai caught on video

Youtube has a quite exciting video of an urban landslide on a major road in Mumbai yesterday.  Fortunately no-one was killed:-