It was reported at least 765 facilities had been damaged. And 52 highways and roads had been blocked. And about 391 people were displaced in the greater Seoul area, most of whom had to stay at local schools and gyms. Also, a further 399 had temporarily moved to community centres and schools.
The southern part of the national capital received more than 100mm (3.9 inches) of rain per hour on late Monday, with some parts of the city hit with 141.5mm, the heaviest rainfall in decades, according to Korea Meteorological Administration.
While South Korea often experiences heavy rains in summer, "such sharp increase in precipitation and frequent torrential rains cannot be explained without the big trend of climate change", a KMA official, who spoke in condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "This phenomenon is seen occurring more often due to climate change that has resulted in a prolonged summer".
The record-breaking rains left six people missing and at least nine dead. This includes a family of three – two sisters in their 40s and a 13-year-old daughter of one sister – who drowned in their banjiha, highlights the predicament of South Korea’s indigent urbanites as well as the country’s housing crisis and growing inequality.
The poor often live in cheap, damp and musty “banjiha”, the tiny subterranean dwellings that were famously depicted in the 2020 Oscar-winning film "Parasite". Some 200,000 households live in such flats in the congested metropolitan area and according to official figures, they make up about 5 percent of housing stock in Seoul.
Over the years, Seoul has offered to help those living in such basement apartments, providing them with pumps and other equipment to fight floods. It has also renovated sewer systems in low-lying districts to help drain rainwater more quickly.
But for thousands of families living in banjiha, they fear floods each monsoon season. They build small dikes with sandbags around their homes. When the floodwater recedes, they put their clothing and furniture in alleyways to dry. In a survey in 2020, more than half of the 500 semi-underground households in two districts in Siheung, just southwest of Seoul, reported their homes submerged in rainwater.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Thursday they would stop issuing permits to construct such homes, while pushing to gradually phase out existing basement and semi-basement flats. The city authorities added that they plan to begin discussions with the national government to ban the use of basements or semi-basement spaces for residential purposes.
Like most governments everywhere, people have to die before they will act.
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