Record downpours killed at least eight people in Seoul on Monday. Many homes, roads and subway stations were flooded in the capital of South Korea. Because of the floods and power outages, hundreds of people evacuated the city.
Parts of Seoul got 422 millimeters (16 inches) of rain from Monday midnight. The city recorded 141.5 millimeters (5.57 inches) of rain per hour. That is the heaviest rain the city has ever recorded.
Most floods were gone by Tuesday morning, but cars and buses were scattered across roads and sidewalks. They were pushed by the deep floods.
Some subway stations were closed Monday night and could not reopen Tuesday morning because of flooding.
The president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, said that the country’s disaster management system has to be reviewed because extreme weather will probably be more common.
Many countries in East Asia are getting heavier rainfall. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that monsoons will grow stronger as the Earth becomes warmer.
Parts of Japan also had downpours Monday night. Flooding was reported in some areas of Hokkaido. There are warnings for flooding and landslides.
VOCABULARY
- Record – the most or least ever; the highest level ever; achieved for the first time
- Downpour – very heavy rain; a severe rain storm
- Flood – too much water in a normally dry area; to cover an area with a lot of water
- Power outage – a period of time when electricity/power in a city stops working
- Evacuate – to leave; to get out of; to make people leave; to remove people
- Scatter – to throw in random directions; to randomly spread objects
- Rainfall – the falling of rain; the amount/quantity of rain
- Monsoon – seasonal winds in SouthEast Asia that create large storms
- Landslide – the falling of a large amount of land or ground, especially down the side of a hill when wet
Original story from CNN below:
