The typhoon Bolaven, which hit South Korea on August 28, was powerful as expected. The typhoon with strong winds and downpours killed at least 10 people, causing serious property damage to farmers and fishermen, especially around southern area of Korea, and triggering power failures and flight cancellations.

According to the National Emergency Management Agency, torrential downpours and unusually powerful winds toppled over trees, signboards, street lights and power lines, causing traffic congestion and temporarily power failure.

The typhoon has left the Korean peninsula, however the South Koreans are still struggling with serious damages from the typhoon.

A 89-year-old person, surname Lim, died on the 28 as a church building collapsed because of the strong winds in Gwangju Metropolitan City. Meanwhile, in Chungcheongnam-do, a middle area of South Korea, a 73-year-old woman surname Jung fell down from top of the building and died while she was trying to cover her properties, and the cause was also powerful winds. According to Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency, 48-year-old surname Park was buried under a container which was carried by strong winds.

Public transportation, especially train, was also delayed and damaged. According to Korean Railroad Corporation, 10 KTXs, Korean bullet train, were not able to run and four railroads also stopped running due to the typhoon.

People had to suffer through massive power failures. It has been estimated that 1.7 million households experienced blackouts nationally, causing huge inconveniences. It is reported that about 15 manufacturing factories including LG Chemistry and Kumho Petrochemical Corporation were damaged by the blackout.

The typhoon damaged a lot of farmers and fishermen as well. It is estimated that 2,617 hectares of orchards in Jeollanam-do, a southern area of Korea, and 35 hectares of fish farms in Wando-gun, which is famous for producing abalone, were destroyed by the typhoon. Since Korea’s one of the biggest national holyday Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving Day, is coming, people are worrying that the people might experience the lack of supply for fruits and fishes around Chuseok season.

Even though the typhoon Bolaven brought serious damages to the southern area of Korea, fortunately, the middle and capital area of Korea, including Seoul, got minor damages. Since the typhoon came from south, people in the middle area had enough time to prepare possible damages from the typhoon. For example, people in the capital area, including Seoul, were told to attach newspapers or sticky tape on their windows before the typhoon came in order to prevent windows from breaking because of powerful winds.

“I heard that it is effective to attach wet newspapers of sticky tapes on windows can help to protect them on the Internet. So I told this to my friends as much as I can via SNS, or mobile phone,” an official worker named Lee Ji-hyun said.

Even though the typhoon Bolaven had left the Korean peninsula, it is expected that another typhoon with heavy rains and strong winds will land to the country starting Thursday, according to the state weather agency.

Typhoon Tembin, named after a Japanese word for the zodiac sign Libra, was approaching northward after hitting Taiwan and is expected to land southeast of Seoul by Friday morning, raising worries about possible damages to the Korean peninsula again.

Image Courtesy of   Morning Calm News

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About the author

Tae-jun Kang
Tae-jun Kang graduated from Korea University with a business degree as well as a minor in Russian language and literature. He had worked as a riot police in Korea for 2 years before he started his degree. This gave him an opportunity to focus on the social issues which he overlooked before, and spiked his interest in the field of journalism. In 2011, he worked for Voice of America Seoul News Center for nine months as an intern, building his goal to become an international journalist. You can reach him by sending an email to taejun.kang@toonarimedia.com