The Flood

What an awesome summer vacation this has been so far! Since June 22 (the official start of summer) Seoul's been hit with 1259.5mm of rain... AKA 87% of what the country would normally get in a whole year. And it was grey and rainy in Seoul for at least 3 weeks before that, too. Even now, during our last three days in the country we can't catch a break with the weather. We've had an unbelievable amount of rain over the past few days especially, but what we've been getting in the last 12 hours has caused devastating floods across the city.

Check out these pictures stolen from various news websites (I'm sure as hell not leaving my apartment to take pictures of this mess!):

Yangjae Stream has overflowed. This is what it looked like 3 days ago when we took a walk there.

Here's Gangnamdaero, probably the busiest street in the city, about 15 minutes walk from my apartment. We were going to get some supper up there tonight... but maybe we can just order delivery instead? UPDATE: We walked up here during a break in the rain last night and it was no longer flooded. However, almost all businesses operating on the first floor of a building were closed and full of miserable looking employees trying to clean the shops with mops and sump pumps. What a mess.

Daechi-dong, where Mel went to work today. She had a truly horrible trip to work. You should have heard the sound of the thunder and the violent pour of the rain as she had to leave for work. Not only was she soaked through by the time she got to the subway, but after she got off the train she had to walk for 15 minutes more to get to her school. En route, she lost both of her sandals and had to chase them as they floated away in the current, all while holding an umbrella and a coffee. She said the sewers looked like fountains with dirty water spraying from the tops of the manholes. Dirty water she was walking barefoot in. She and her students were sent home early because everyone was hungry but no one could deliver the day's snack in this weather. So on the walk home she tried to pick up lunch at KFC but they were all out of food! Awesome.

The rain caused a big mudslide at Umyeonsan, near Nambu Bus Terminal. This is only a 5 minute drive from our apartment. One person died in the mudslide and a bunch of apartments were evacuated. I read that 32 people have died so far today as a result of the flood.

The Han River, which runs through the middle of the city, has overflowed and forced people to abandon their cars. Vehicles have had to be abandoned all over the city due to the flooding.

This is truly amazing weather we're experiencing. You've got to hand it to the people who are still out there trying to do their jobs in this mess. Mel said she saw businessmen trudging through the water, their suits knee-deep in water. And just as I'm writing this, my doorbell rang and there was a deliveryman for me. My Gmarket order came in! Should ordered scuba gear...

Ask me if I'm going to miss this weather? My only hope is that our flight isn't affected by this weather on Saturday and that we're not wheeling 4 suitcases to the airport bus stop in the rain.
On the plus side, all this rain has allowed me lots of time to clean the apartment and download some new shows. Breaking Bad is awesome! I'll probably be able to get through the last two seasons by Saturday at this rate :)