Typhoon Nabi

From the Korean Herald

Gusty winds and torrential rains caused by Typhoon Nabi left one missing and about 30 injured, flooded homes and grounded flights in the southern parts of Korea.

Nabi, meaning "butterfly" in Korean, was moving past the southeastern Korean Peninsula last night and is likely to retreat as early as this morning, the nation's weather agency said.

The typhoon approached the peninsula after it hit the densely populated southern Japanese island of Kyushu yesterday afternoon. The meteorological authorities issued a typhoon alert yesterday morning for southern and eastern coastal areas in Gangwon and South and North Gyeongsang provinces.

Ulsan received a record-high 540.5 millimeters of heavy rain which flooded houses and roads and crippled traffic. Hyundai Motor in Ulsan was forced to suspend its operations last night as employees could not travel to work because of bad traffic conditions in the industrial complex.

The National Emergency Management Agency said a man in his 70s was missing near a stream in Ulsan.

About 30 people were injured yesterday by traffic accidents on slippery roads due to heavy rains in the southeastern port city of Busan, the nation's antidisaster agency said. Some houses and roads in low areas were flooded and hundreds of people in the area were forced to flee their homes.

The typhoon stranded many travelers by grounding 133 domestic flights from Gimpo Airport and dozens of international airlines to and from Japan and blocking ferry services.

A 5,470-ton Vietnamese vessel with more than 22 crews ran aground near Pohang, but officials said all were rescued. Thousands of vessels came ashore as strong waves were expected.

Dozens of signboards in the city were gusted away by strong winds which measured speeds of up to 33.7 meters per second (121.32 km/h). There were also a series of blackouts in Yeonsan-dong and other areas in Busan.

A total of 73 schools were temporarily closed yesterday in southeastern parts of Korea.

Meteorologists say Nabi is as powerful as Typhoon Maemi which hit the nation in mid-September two years ago, killing around 130 people and causing 4.22 trillion won of damage.

Nabi was the first typhoon to hit Korea this year and one or two typhoons usually affect Korea this time of the year. The strongest typhoon to hit Korea was Rusa in 2002, which resulted in 184 dead or missing and 5.46 trillion won in losses.

Meteorologists expect Korea to be affected by a couple of typhoons in September or October.

By Jin Hyun-joo



In a more recent article, it was mentioned that there is also a teenager that is missing in this area as well as the older man.