Josh and I never take taxis, not anymore anyway (that is another story). We have become experts at public transportation, navigating the hundreds of bus lines and dozens of subways. So when at 7:15am I said with a hint of worry in my voice that we should maybe take a taxi to work it should be an indicator of how intensely it was raining yesterday morning. I love rain, it doesn’t bring me down or slow me down, in fact I welcome it! But this was more than rain; this was probably hour eight of non-stop torrential downpour. Of course we skipped the taxi and instead packed some extra shoes and I put on my knee-high rain boots, we grabbed our giant umbrellas and began the five minute walk to the bus stop. Down down down the hill we went and as we reached the intersection and we call “our intersection” we noticed a lack of cars, a lack of people, and well, a lack of road or even sidewalk! A two-foot deep lake had replaced our intersection, and traffic was not going through, except a brave vehicle here or there. Not sure what to do we looked for the bus stop, foolishly thinking it would still be an option to take our bus. After a motorist came through causing a hip high wave that drenched us completely we abandoned the idea of the bus and trekked in the other direction to the subway station. Underground we will be dry, so we thought. We made our way back across our neighborhood to Yeoksam station, every few steps being blinded by close lightening and equally shook by its accompanying thunder. Once in the station we felt some security, so we called work, told them we’d be late, for sure, but we were on our way.
Bangbae station, our stop for this particular trip. Second to Sadang station, it’s closest neighbor, was the place hit the hardest by the heavy rains, and as we tried to exit the station there were scores of people lined up in the stairway, huddled from the rain. We made our way our hoping to catch a bus to our school, and we were greeted with quite a shock- the water was rushing down the streets like a mountain river in spring, causing meter high waves at the side of every car. The water was brown and muddy and the scene lingers in my memory. Going to work seemed foolish and insane to me, but work is the most important thing to most Koreans, so even after many calls to work, they insisted that we try to get there. Walking seemed the best bet at this point, traffic was at a stand still, cars could hardly make it up the hill in opposition to the water rushing down the hill. As we walked along with hundreds of other people, all stranded, needing to be somewhere, we stopped along the way to determine if crossing was safe, for certain places the water was rushing so fast that one slip would mean injury or worse…
Finally one woman informed us to not go further because there had just been a landslide, so it was not safe to go up any further, nor was it safe to go back down, so we stayed. The smell of the air became dank and earthy, an eerie smell, considering we knew what it was now. And then the water began to really flow, along with trees and rocks and dirt and branches. Debris getting stuck on cars, crashing into buildings and making for a dangerous morning for all! Over 30 people died because of the landslides, it was crazy, scary, intense and dirty! After three hours outside, my boots were filled with mud and water, my skirt and shirt and hair were all wet and dirty, our fingers were wrinkled as if we’d been in a hot tub for an hour. We got the word from work that we didn’t need to come in. Finally! Then we began our trek home. Less dangerous, yet quite uncomfortable. Power was out in a major portion of the city south of the river and water lines had been cut in many areas as well. We had both, luckily. Emergency vehicle sirens rang out through the city, desperate to get through the grid locked traffic to those injured in the landslides.
Crews began working immediately and are still working around the clock to clear water and debris. And the rain keeps coming down…. I didn't have my camera, so I borrowed someone's to take a few snapshots of the aftermath, here ya go!
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| cars submerged at Daechi station. Cars have been abandoned and are still littering the streets. There was some fear that subway stations would collapse under the weight and pressure of the water up top. |
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| one of the landslides, photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
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| about one hour before I took this shot I was on the other side of the street, where those men are, as this thing was sliding down. Good Samaritans were helping people cross dangerous areas like this one. |
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| the sidewalk |
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| barricades were put up to help keep water from flowing down into the subway stations |
to see some footage from Korean news check out these videos:
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