SEOUL/BEIJING: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday blamed authorities’ failure to follow disaster response rules as the death toll from days of torrential rain rose to 40, including a dozen people found dead in a submerged underpass.

Deluges have pummelled central and southern regions since Thursday as the rainy season that started in late June reaches its peak. The interior ministry has also reported nine people missing and 34 injured across the nation.

Twelve deaths, including three bodies found overnight, occurred in a tunnel in Cheongju, 110km south of Seoul, where 16 vehicles, including a bus, were swamped by a flash flood on Saturday after a river levee collapsed. The incident fuelled questions over South Korea’s efforts to prevent and respond to flood damage.

Some drivers who use the road regularly blamed the government for failing to ban access to the underpass even though floods were widely forecast. Yoon, just back from an overseas trip, on Monday convened a disaster response meeting and conceded the situation was made worse because of poor management of vulnerable areas.

Typhoon

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in southern China and Vietnam on Monday as a typhoon barrelled towards land.

The China Meteorological Administration said typhoon Talim made landfall on the coast of Guangdong province at around 10:20pm.

Powerful winds, storm surges and lashing rains were forecast to hammer the southern coastline from Guangdong to Hainan provinces on Monday night, it said.

The forecaster had issued an orange alert, the second-highest warning in a four-tier colour-coded system.

It said the storm was expected to lose speed by Tuesday morning and “weaken and dissipate over northern Vietnam” on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2023