SEOUL– Typhoon Omais weakened into an extratropical cyclone Tuesday morning, after making landfall around midnight Monday, flooding roads and houses, and forcing more than 1,100 people to evacuate in southern South Korean cities that lay in its path.
Typhoon warnings issued the previous day were all lifted, but the weather service forecast heavy rains of up to 200 millimeters with strong winds, as well as occasional lightning and thunder, to continue throughout the day in the coastal areas and southern parts of the country.
The season’s first typhoon to hit the country dissipated over the East Sea, bringing heavy downpours for its relatively small size, packing wind gusts of up to 18-19 meters per second and pressure of 996 hectopascals.
The typhoon dumped 219.5 mm of rain on Jeju, 205.5 mm in Sacheon and 184 mm in Geoje, both in South Gyeongsang Province, and 159 mm in Busan.
Firefighters rescued 18 people from flash flooding and no injuries were reported as of early Tuesday, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, but 33 people were displaced in Ulsan and Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, and 1,157 people were evacuated amid fears of landslides and flash floods in eastern Busan, Changwon and South Jeolla Province.
The railway connecting Gwangju and Miryang in South Gyeongsang Province was cutoff after parts of the railway became covered with piles of mud from heavy rainfall early Tuesday morning. The service was restored in the afternoon.
Nine roads in the provinces of South Gyeongsang and South Jeolla were inundated with flash floods.
Twenty shopping quarters in Ulsan and Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, and 18 houses in Tongyeong were flooded. Flash floods swamped an outdoor parking lot in Sacheon. In Ulsan and Busan, 217 homes temporarily lost power.
High winds and heavy downpours forced 86 flights and 70 ferries to stop service. Thousands of boats were anchored at ports nationwide and 450 trails at 18 national parks were closed.
Airlines began operations again, but 108 ferries on 79 routes, including those bound for Jeju, are still grounded.
The national weather service warned of continuing rains Tuesday in southern Korea largely due to a low pressure system approaching the peninsula.
Source: Yonhap News Agency