[Reporter’s Notebook] Osong Underpass Tragedy: Only a Blame Game

The administrative authorities are only engaged in a blame game over the Osong underpass flooding accident that resulted in 14 deaths. Beyond the tragedy itself, the ‘blame-shifting’ behavior of the related agencies in response to the disaster frightens the public even more.

At around 8:40 a.m. on the 15th, muddy water overflowing from the Miho River is flooding the Gungpyeong 2nd Underpass in Osong-eup, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si.
Photo by Yonhap News

Chungbuk Province and Cheongju City are both denying responsibility for managing the underpass where the tragedy occurred, while the Administrative City Construction Agency (행복청, Haengbokcheong), which constructed the Miho River embankment, is in conflict with the residents.

Cheongju City claims that the underpass where the tragedy happened belongs to Local Road No. 508, which is managed by Chungbuk Province, so they did not respond directly. This is an absurd excuse. On the other hand, Chungbuk Province argues that they were not informed by Cheongju City about the relevant details and therefore could not identify the risk in advance.

The Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in Osong-eup, Cheongju City, is adjacent to the Miho River, which caused the underpass flooding, and its elevation is lower than the surrounding rice paddies and fields. The underpass is 430 meters long, so once flooding began, a disaster was inevitable. However, Cheongju City ignored the warning alarms. The Geumgang Flood Control Office issued a flood warning for Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju City, two hours before 8:40 a.m. on the 15th, when the disaster occurred. Additionally, about 40 minutes before the accident, there was a 119 emergency call reporting that "the embankment seems to be overflowing." Despite this, Cheongju City took no action for two hours.

In this situation, the police also received multiple reports around 7:05 a.m. that the Miho River might overflow, but they only notified Heungdeok-gu and did not actually control the underpass.

Residents claim that the Miho River embankment was poorly managed. However, an official from Haengbokcheong, which constructed the embankment, defends by saying, "There was no problem with management, and the embankment was washed away due to an unprecedented natural disaster caused by torrential rain exceeding flood levels."

Why do they keep shifting responsibility to each other? It is because there was no disaster control tower. The Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the main agency responsible for disaster response, has been vacant for five months. Furthermore, the Presidential Office explained that the president, who is on an overseas trip, is not returning immediately because "even if he rushes to Seoul right now, it would not make a significant difference." It is terrifying that such a disaster occurred without a disaster control tower. Due to climate change, extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall are becoming more frequent and intense. From now on, it is time for everyone to recognize what they must do and to reorganize the response system.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.