Once-in-200-year rainfall becoming more frequent: Is Korea prepared?
Following the historical rainfall of nearly 1,000 millimeters dumped on Geoje over three days, urgent calls are made to change the country's weather disaster response system as such extreme rainfall is starting to become an annual event. During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to devise measures to revamp the country’s response system, citing the urgent…
Severe downpours that dumped nearly 1,000 millimeters of rain on South Korea's Geoje island over a three-day period have reignited discussions about the nation's preparedness for extreme weather events. The deluge, which peaked at 124.5 millimeters in an hour, is so intense that it is statistically expected to occur only once every two centuries.
This unprecedented rainfall has prompted President Lee Jae Myung to call for a comprehensive overhaul of the country's disaster response system, citing the urgent need to adapt to rapidly changing climate patterns. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety reported that the heaviest rainfall, over 50 millimeters per hour, has become a much more common occurrence than in the past.
In the 1970s, there were only ten instances of such heavy rainfall in a decade. However, recent data shows a steady increase in the number of such incidents, suggesting that Korea's outdated disaster response framework is ill-equipped to handle the evolving climate crisis.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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- Once-in-200-year rainfall becoming more frequent: Is Korea prepared? koreatimes.co.kr
