Landslide Crisis Warning Raised to 'Severe' in Chungcheong and Central Regions

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 10th at 3:40 a.m. that the landslide warning for the Daejeon, Sejong, Chungnam, Chungbuk, Gyeongbuk, Jeonbuk, and Daegu regions has been raised from ‘Alert’ to ‘Severe’.

Vehicles are moving with their headlights on in the downtown area of Seo-gu, Daejeon, where heavy rain fell overnight. Photo by Yonhap News

On that day, heavy rain advisories and warnings were issued for some areas in Chungnam, and a heavy rain preliminary special warning was in effect mainly in the central region. The Korea Meteorological Administration forecasted that by the morning, rainfall would exceed 50mm per hour in Daejeon, Sejong, inland Chungbuk and Chungnam, and northern Jeonbuk, while the Gyeongsang area would experience rainfall around 20mm to 50mm per hour.

The Korea Forest Service held a situation assessment meeting chaired by the Head of the Landslide Prevention Support Headquarters (Im Sang-seop, Korea Forest Service Chief) and, after comprehensively considering preceding rainfall and weather conditions, upgraded the landslide warning to the ‘Severe’ level.

In line with the escalation of the warning, the Korea Forest Service is currently operating a 24-hour situation monitoring and emergency response system.

Im Sang-seop, Chief of the Korea Forest Service, stated, “Due to recent heavy preceding rainfall and additional rainfall forecasts, the risk of landslides has increased. We urge the public to pay close attention to emergency disaster messages and village broadcasts, and in case of emergency, to promptly evacuate to safe places such as village halls and schools.”

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