Rescuers hunt for storm victims in South Korean resort
Date: 03-Sep-02
Country: SOUTH KOREA
Author: Kim Kyung-hoon
"I escaped the house with nothing," 65-year-old retiree Kwon Sa-hyun told Reuters. "Everything I own is gone. I don't know how I am going to live."
The seaside resort of Kangnung some 160 km (99 miles) east of Seoul bore the brunt of Typhoon Rusa, the worst storm to hit the country since 1959.
"It was frightening, small bridges and roads washed away, trees were uprooted. Hydro poles went down so we were completely cut off," army Captain Jeong Hoon, stationed near Kangnung, told Reuters.
South Korea said yesterday 158 were dead or missing but the toll was rising as rescue efforts continued.
Kangnung, with a population of 230,000 people, was hit by a record 871 mm (34 inches) of rain on Saturday.
Yesterday rescuers used listening devices as they picked their way through streets engulfed by landslides, hunting for survivors, a witness said.
"Many people are buried or have been washed away. Some are buried dead under the mud that fell upon cars," said an aid worker. "Helicopters are going back and forth to carry food supplies."
Winds of up to 200 km/h (127 mph) sent waves crashing through walls, sweeping away buildings, roads and railway tracks.
CARS IN FIELDS, ANIMALS ON ROADS
Along roads into Kangnung, cars and trucks were half-submerged in fields while farm animals had climbed onto roads to escape the floods, Jeong said.
"I tried to find dinner at a restaurant last night and the only places I found were flooded, the workers busy salvaging pots and dishes from the mud," he said.
Aid workers distributed water and food while repairmen began fixing battered power lines and police struggled to restore communication links with stations across the region.
Nationwide, soldiers were among some 50,000 rescue workers deployed in the search for some 70 missing people, the National Disaster Prevention Headquarters said.
Thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes over the weekend. Yesterday, some 400,000 people were reported without water though electricity had been restored to most of the 1.25 million homes hit by power cuts.
The estimated cost of the damage had risen to 312 billion won ($262 million) by Monday afternoon as reports of destruction came in from across the country.
Rusa was the strongest typhoon to hit South Korea since Sarah in 1959, which killed more than 800 people. A smaller typhoon claimed more than 300 lives in 1987.
