Home TRENDING YOON CRITICIZES FAILED RESPONSES FOR 39 SOUTH KOREA FLOOD DEATHS.

YOON CRITICIZES FAILED RESPONSES FOR 39 SOUTH KOREA FLOOD DEATHS.

YOON CRITICIZES FAILED RESPONSES FOR 39 SOUTH KOREA FLOOD DEATHS.

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As the death toll from days of severe rain climbed to 39 on Monday, including 12 individuals found dead under a drowned underpass, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol blasted officials’ inability to follow disaster response procedures.

South Korea flood death toll rises to 39. REUTERS/Kim Hong-ji

Since Thursday, the rainy season that began in late June has been relentless in the country’s central and southern areas. Nine individuals are reported missing and 34 are injured, according to the interior ministry.

In the central city of Cheongju, 16 vehicles, including a bus, were swept away by a flash flood on Saturday after a river levee failed, resulting in 12 fatalities. Three bodies were recovered overnight. Moreover, nine other people were injured.

Concerns were raised about the efficacy of flood prevention and response activities in South Korea as a result of the disaster. Regular users of the road have faulted the government for not closing the underpass when floods were predicted.

As weather patterns become increasingly intense, floods have taken scores of lives in recent rainy seasons.

After the biggest downpours in 115 years battered Seoul, including the trendy area of Gangnam, last year, leaving at least 14 dead and flooding subways, roads, and homes, the government committed to take efforts to better cope with climate change-induced disasters.

Yoon, freshly returned from an international vacation, convened an intra-agency conference on disaster response on Monday and blamed inadequate management of sensitive areas for exacerbating the crisis.

Yoon told the meeting, “We have repeatedly emphasized access control over dangerous areas and preemptive evacuation since last year, but if basic principles of disaster response are not kept on the spot, it is difficult to ensure public safety.”

He urged officials to use every available resource to save lives, and he promised help for the cleanup and the families of the victims, including the declaration of disaster zones in the districts hardest devastated by the floods.

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