Typhoon Hinnamnor grazed the resort of Jeju and hit the mainland near the port city of Busan before blowing into the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Hinnamnor’s winds have weakened to 115 kilometers (71 miles) per hour and the typhoon is expected to downgrade to a tropical cyclone overnight as it moves northeast between Russia and the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, South Korea’s weather service said. Damage was most severe in the southern city of Pohang, where one person was found dead and at least nine others were missing after the storm submerged roads and buildings, triggered landslides and flooded a shopping mall. Storm-damaged cars – their windows smashed or trunks open – strewn streets like rubbish, while an entire two-storey villa with a swimming pool was uprooted and washed away by flash floods. Troops were deployed to help rescue and recovery efforts, moving in armored vehicles that rolled through roads turned into chocolate-colored rivers. Hinnamnor hit just weeks after heavy rains in the region around the capital Seoul caused flooding that killed at least 14 people. The storm dumped more than 105 centimeters (41 inches) of rain on central Jeju since Sunday, where winds peaked at 155 km/h (96 mph). The southern and eastern parts of the mainland were also damaged — signs and roofs were toppled, trees, traffic signals and power poles were uprooted, and roads and parking lots were submerged. A woman in her 70s died in Pohang after being swept away by flash floods, while another woman in her 80s died in nearby Gyeongju after her house was buried in a landslide. The nine people missing in Pohang include eight trapped in a submerged underground car park. In the nearby city of Ulsan, a 25-year-old man is missing after falling into a rain-swollen stream, according to the Ministry of Interior and Security. Also in Pohang, firefighters extinguished flames that damaged at least three facilities at a large steel plant operated by POSCO. A presidential official, who spoke on condition of anonymity during a briefing, said officials were investigating the cause of the fires. Local fire officials said the flames destroyed a building that housed electrical equipment and damaged a separate office building and a coke plant before extinguishing themselves. The security ministry said about 500 of the 3,400 people forced to evacuate had returned to their homes as of Tuesday afternoon. Nearly 80 homes and buildings were flooded or destroyed, while hundreds of roads, bridges and facilities were damaged. More than 600 schools closed or converted to online classes. Workers were able to restore power to 30,006 of the 66,341 households that lost power as of Tuesday afternoon. In North Korea, state media reported “comprehensive efforts” to minimize damage from floods and landslides. The Korean Central News Agency reported that leader Kim Jong Un during cabinet meetings had issued unspecified “detailed works” to improve the country’s disaster response capability, but did not elaborate on the plans. North Korea was badly damaged by heavy rains and floods in 2020 that destroyed buildings, roads and crops, shocking the country’s already crippled economy.
