Heavy rains cause property damage of 34.9 billion won

The heavy rains that pounded central Korea, the northern part of Gyeongi-do, Seoul and Gangwon-do Sunday through Monday caused massive property damage. According to the National Disaster Prevention and Counter Measures Headquarters on Monday, the torrential rains destroyed or flooded 365 houses nationwide, left 204 people from 71 households homeless and inundated 25,869 ha of farmland, resulting in total property damage of 34.9 billion won.

In particular, since the heavy rains fell just ahead of the harvest season and was concentrated on the rice paddies of Honam, inundating some 1,050,000 ha or 2.1 percent of the nation`s farmland, it is feared that the rice harvest will be decreased, along with various fall fruits and other farm products. This is expected to push up prices of farm products ahead of Chuseok (Moon Festival) on September 12. The Korea Meterological Administration announced Monday that the rain stopped in most parts of the country as of Monday afternoon, but forecast that thick clouds will gather from August 29 through 30 with more sporadic showers across the nation.

Meanwhile, flood alerts and warnings posted for the downstream areas of the Imjin River and Geumgang River basins were lifted as of Monday. Earlier on Monday, the Han River Flood Control Station posted a flood warning for the midstream area of the Imjin River at around 5 p.m. and evacuated some 200 local residents to village halls or other venues. At around 4:10 p.m., about 10 meters of an embankment in Goyang City, Gyeonggi-do, was demolished, flooding 5 ha of farmland, and Sincheon River in Dongducheon City was swollen for some time. Due to the heavy rain that fell in the northern part of Gyeonggi-do, some primary schools were closed or let students go home earlier than scheduled.