"25 to 1" Summer Storm and Flood Deaths Plunge... "Government Response Effective"

Focused management of three major hazards that can cause fatalities during the preparedness period
Evacuation order authority granted to local officials... stronger public-private cooperation
"We will protect lives through preventive disaster management"

There was 1 death from storm and flood damage this summer, a 96% decrease from 25 last year. Property damage also fell by 89.3%. Proactive measures, including intensive inspections of disaster-risk facilities, early detection of warning signs, and the prompt evacuation of residents, are believed to have been highly effective in minimizing damage.

Water levels in Musimcheon have risen near Heungdeok Bridge in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, where a flood advisory took effect on the morning of July 9, 2026. Yonhap News Agency.

On October 15, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced the results of the “2026 Summer Natural Disaster Preparedness Period,” which ran from May 15 to October 15. It said the provisional number of deaths from storm and flood damage was 1, down 96% from the previous year, while property damage totaled KRW 120.9 billion, down 89.3% from KRW 1.1307 trillion the previous year.

Although rainfall across the country this summer was below the average for a typical year, precipitation was highly variable, with repeated episodes of extreme rainfall in which torrential downpours were concentrated in specific areas over short periods. In particular, Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, recorded 654.3 mm of rainfall on August 17, the third-highest daily total on record, and 124.5 mm in one hour, the fourth-highest on record.

The sole death from storm and flood damage occurred when a person was buried by a debris flow following a slope collapse in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. This was the lowest number of deaths since 2015, when there were no fatalities. Of the KRW 120.9 billion in property damage, KRW 92.7 billion affected public facilities and KRW 28.2 billion affected private facilities.

During the preparedness period, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety focused on three major types of hazards that can cause fatalities: landslides, river-related disasters, and flooding in underground spaces. It operated a field-oriented response system that prioritized evacuating residents when warning signs were detected. In particular, it established quantitative criteria for control and evacuation for the first time, replacing the previous approach based primarily on qualitative judgment, enabling faster decision-making. For landslides, the criteria specified that residents must be evacuated immediately when cumulative rainfall reaches at least 300 mm and rainfall in one hour reaches at least 50 mm.

Employees at the Han River Flood Control Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, monitor the Han River's water levels and other conditions. Photo by Kim Hyunmin, kimhyun81@

Cooperation between the public and private sectors was also strengthened by giving heads of eup, myeon, and dong administrative units the authority to order resident evacuations. In Seo-gu, Busan, residents were evacuated immediately after cracks were found in a retaining wall below a multi-family housing complex, preventing casualties in a collapse that occurred shortly afterward. In Osan, Gyeonggi Province, when the water level of Osancheon rose sharply on July 9, the head of Sinjang 2-dong quickly evacuated residents of semi-basement homes to a senior center, responding swiftly after detecting the warning signs.

Protections were also strengthened for vulnerable people, including older adults and people with disabilities, who may have difficulty evacuating on their own. The Resident Evacuation Support Teams were expanded to every city, county, and district nationwide, increasing their membership to 97,641, up 30% from the previous year. The authorities also identified 26,189 people requiring priority evacuation, up 114.8% from the previous year, and established a support system for them.

Inspections of disaster-risk facilities and preventive measures were also stepped up. Key risk facilities were inspected intensively an average of at least twice, including 4.24 million storm drains, 34,072 landslide-prone areas, and 1,097 underpasses. Installation of entry barriers for underpasses was completed at 520 of the 564 locations where they are required, or 92.2%. Fall-prevention facilities for manholes were installed at 198,000 locations, or 78.6%, and flood-prevention facilities were installed in 24,689 semi-basement homes, or 70.4%.

As climate change makes extreme rainfall more difficult to predict, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to carefully analyze shortcomings identified during this preparedness period and improve the disaster response system, focusing on the management of high-risk areas and protection of vulnerable groups. Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Ho-jung said, “We will continue to pay close attention to places most vulnerable to disasters and do our utmost to become a government that protects people’s lives through preventive disaster management—identifying risks early and responding before they escalate.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.