S. Gyeongsang fire trucks sent for drought relief just days ago redeployed for flood rescue

South Gyeongsang Province, where a national fire mobilization order was issued just five days ago to haul water during a severe drought, was struck by record-breaking extreme rainfall exceeding 840 millimeters — triggering a second national fire mobilization order in less than a week.

The back-to-back weather extremes forced fire authorities to pivot almost immediately: water tanker trucks that had been supplying agricultural water were swapped out for high-capacity water cannons and rescue boats as emergency drainage and rescue operations got underway.

According to the South Gyeongsang Province Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and the National Fire Agency, cumulative average rainfall across the province from the Liberation Day holiday on Saturday through 11:30 a.m. Monday reached 195.9 millimeters.

The rain was concentrated along the southern coast. Cumulative totals at key monitoring points reached 843.5 mm in Geoje (Hadun), 684.9 mm in Tongyeong, 429.0 mm in Goseong (Hangnim) and 439.5 mm in Sacheon (Sinsu). Geoje and Tongyeong both broke their all-time records for hourly rainfall since meteorological observations began, with around 50 to 100 mm falling per hour. In Geoje, more than 500 mm of rain fell between Sunday night and early Monday morning alone.

The torrential downpours caused a string of casualties. At around 4:42 a.m. Monday, a hillside landslide buried the first-floor unit of an apartment building in Okpo-dong, Geoje, and a resident was found in cardiac arrest. The person was rushed to hospital but died. Two other residents were injured. Then, at around 5:05 a.m., a landslide buried a house on Gonri Island in Sanyang-eup, Tongyeong, injuring a woman in her 60s, who was rescued by the Korea Coast Guard and fire authorities.

The National Fire Agency activated its emergency operations center at 2:40 a.m. Monday and issued two consecutive national fire mobilization orders at 6:23 a.m. and 6:35 a.m.

A total of 434 personnel were deployed to the scene — 361 from the South Gyeongsang fire service, 26 from other cities and provinces, and 47 from the Central 119 Rescue Headquarters — along with 97 pieces of equipment. Ten all-terrain pump trucks rushed from four jurisdictions, including Busan, Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province and Changwon, were deployed alongside high-capacity water cannon systems and rescue boats for drainage operations in flooded areas.

Fire authorities received 1,947 damage reports — 1,634 from Geoje and 313 from Tongyeong. Of those, 20 rescue operations were carried out, bringing 136 residents to safety: 126 in Geoje and 10 in Tongyeong.

Infrastructure damage and evacuations mounted rapidly. Authorities recorded 23 landslide sites, 12 road damage or flooding incidents, four river overflows and 20 flooded homes, while around 2,030 households in Tongyeong and Geoje lost power. The Gohyeon, Dundeok and Suwol streams in Geoje and the Jeongnyang stream in Tongyeong overflowed, submerging bus terminals, shops and roads.

A total of 212 locations were fully closed to traffic, including 13 roads, 47 riverside walking paths and 111 low-water crossings. Across three cities and counties, 125 households comprising 165 people evacuated — 84 households with 107 people in Geoje, 28 households with 41 people in Sacheon, and 13 households with 17 people in Tongyeong. Of those, 80 households with 99 people remained at temporary shelters as of Monday.

The heavy rain largely resolved the province's severe drought. When the average reservoir level across the province fell to 33.3 percent on Aug. 12 and 2,834 hectares of farmland dried up, 200 water tanker trucks and 400 personnel from 16 fire departments nationwide had been mobilized for emergency water supply. The rains reversed that: the provincial average reservoir level, which stood at 32.2 percent on Aug. 14, climbed to 43.1 percent as of 2 p.m. Monday. Geoje's reservoir level surged from 28.7 percent to 73.6 percent, lifting the city out of drought status, and Miryang was the only area in the province still classified at the "Serious" drought level.

Concerns over secondary damage — including additional landslides and retaining wall collapses — have grown, however, as large volumes of rainwater saturated ground that had been parched by the prolonged drought.

Gov. Park Wan-su visited the damage site in Okpo-dong, Geoje, and the evacuation shelter at Okpo Sungji Middle School on Monday morning to assess conditions, then attended a video conference of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters held at Geoje City Hall, where he ordered all cities and counties to begin emergency restoration immediately.

"The ground has been severely weakened by record rainfall coming right on the heels of an extreme drought, and the risk of further collapses remains high even after the rain stops," Park said. He issued a special directive ordering deputy heads of each city and county to personally oversee inspections of hazardous areas and resident evacuations, and calling on all jurisdictions to mobilize equipment from neighboring cities, counties and military units to restore normal life for residents as quickly as possible.