S.Korea: Nationwide rainfall subsides but disrupts travel, causes damage

SEOUL: Heavy downpours that pounded South Korea earlier this week subsided on Saturday, officials said, although travel disruptions and damages continued in some parts of the country.

As of Saturday afternoon, most weather warnings over the heavy rainfall had been lifted, and lighter downpours are now prevailing throughout the country. Jeju, the southern island that had seen more than 1,000 millimetre of rain since Wednesday, reported 35 cases of flooding and soil erosion, according to municipal authorities, Yonhap news agency reported.

However, Jeju International Airport has returned to normal operations aside from a few delays, with a total of 512 flights scheduled to operate.

In Incheon, west of Seoul, the worsening weather in the Yellow Sea has forced the closure of four of the 14 passenger ship routes to nearby islands, with wind speeds in the area having reached up to nine metre per second. In Busan, 320 kilometre southeast of Seoul, a strong wind warning remained in effect, with the maximum instantaneous wind speed in the area reaching 5-10 metre per second.

The strong winds have caused a number of accidents in the port city, such as a bus colliding with a truck at 6:23 a.m., injuring 11 people. There were also 79 safety-related reports across Busan about such cases as signboards and outer walls about to fall.

In Gwangju, 268 km south of Seoul, a gas pipe in the northern ward of Buk became flooded at around 4:30 a.m., cutting off gas to 280 households. In the surrounding South Jeolla Province region, nearly 700 hectare of farmland was estimated to be flooded after four consecutive days of downpours.

–IANS