On August 8th, Seoul's largest rainfall in over 100 years pelted the city. The city averages 348 millimeters (13.7 inches) of rain in August. The rain started falling early in the day and carried on all day causing serious flooding throughout the city. An additional 300 millimeters (11.8 inches) is possible on top of the already overflowing parts of the city. Citizens were stranded in restaurants and offices with no way to get home as the roads were severely flooded that night. The rain came swiftly and did not let up throughout the night. As citizens fought to travel home and to safety, the city did all it could to help as workers worked to mitigate the chaos.
These are some of the more popular photos shared of citizens struggling to cope with the rivers of water on the 8th. The man shown taking refuge from the river of water that surrounds him in downtown Gangnam was one of the more popular photos shared online this weekend. These photos were shared extensively on social media last night as everyone tried to cope with what was going on. Flooding to this extent caught everyone off-guard, but some people decided to have some fun amongst the destruction. Netizens were making memes and even seen swimming in the flooded streets early in the night as shown below.
It seemed to be a bad storm at first, but not something that would become as serious or historical as it has. By Tuesday morning, 8 people had been found dead due to the flooding with at least 2 workers dying trying to lessen the damage. The heavy rainfall is not letting up as it is set to continue throughout the week and the following week for the city. People have been told to avoid certain roadways and stations as they make their daily commutes. Seoul aims to keep pushing forward, though political push-back has been steady. Citizens have been criticizing the President's response as well as his forced stay at his residence in Seocho-dong due to the emergency instead of being briefed at the Blue House where a president normally safely resides.
Have you ever seen flooding like this? Have you seen anything that shocked you saw last night? Let us know below!