Typhoon Hinnamnor: South Korea Dodges Major Destruction From Typhoon Hinnamnor (Published 2022) (2024)

South Korea on Tuesday was hit by heavy rain and strong winds but avoided the extensive destruction that many had feared as Typhoon Hinnamnor, one of the strongest storms ever to reach its shores, made its way out to sea faster than forecasters had expected.

By Tuesday afternoon, two deaths had been reported and ten people were missing, according to the authorities. The damage to property nationwide appeared to be limited. There was isolated — though severe — flooding, trees were downed and street lamps broken, and about 66,000 homes lost power.

Cheong Tae Sung, an expert in flooding at the National Disaster Management Research Institute, a government agency, said the deadly floods that struck South Korea last month had made both the public and the authorities more attuned to the dangers of a major storm.

“Compared to the past, we did a lot more preparation before this typhoon, suspending schools, delaying the work day, closing roads — and simply getting the word out,” he said.

But the storm itself, while powerful, did not leave as much damage as had been feared. When its eye reached the southern coast at 4:50 a.m., Hinnamnor was packing maximum sustained winds of 89 miles per hour — making it the eighth-strongest typhoon in South Korea’s history, by that measure, but not the most powerful ever to reach it.

And it crossed the country’s southeast corner faster than expected, slipping back out to sea by 7:10 a.m., inflicting its severe wind and rain on the country for a shorter period of time than forecasters had feared it might.

By late afternoon, Hinnamnor was about 270 miles off South Korea’s east coast and continuing northeast. It was expected to pass about 240 miles northwest of Sapporo, Japan, at about 9 p.m. on Tuesday, the Korean meteorological service said.

The record-breaking deluge that struck South Korea a month ago killed 15 people across the country, including a family of three who drowned in their semi-underground apartment. President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was criticized for his response, promised measures to prevent a recurrence. As Hinnamnor neared, the government put a stronger emphasis on the need to evacuate. It sent out 412 typhoon-related mobile safety alerts, including evacuation orders, in different regions over a five-day period.

More than 14,000 people left their homes under government orders to evacuate high-risk areas, the authorities said. After the typhoon made landfall, about 3,500 additional people evacuated, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Over the weekend, the government issued its most urgent typhoon warning, the highest-level alert it had sent in five years.

Forecasters had warned that Hinnamnor’s force might be comparable to that of two devastating typhoons from two decades ago, Rusa and Maemi. In 2002, Typhoon Rusa swept across South Korea, leaving dozens dead and destroying more than a million homes. The following year, Typhoon Maemi killed more than 100 people and caused $1.6 billion in damage.

The terms typhoon and hurricane refer to tropical cyclones and are applied to storms depending on where they originate. Typhoons develop in the northwestern Pacific and usually affect Asia. Hurricanes form in the North Atlantic, the northeastern Pacific, the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico.

In the Atlantic, major hurricanes are defined as tropical cyclones with maximum sustained winds of 111 m.p.h. or higher, and defined as either Category 3, 4 and 5 storms. But in the Asia Pacific region, there are variations in how countries grade typhoons.

The links between tropical storms and climate change are becoming more apparent. Researchers have found that warming has increased the frequency of major storms because a warmer ocean provides more of the energy that fuels them.

Pohang, a city of about 500,000 people north of Busan, appeared to be the site of South Korea’s worst flooding from the typhoon so far, with one person dead and officials responding to dozens of emergencies. Images on social media showed landslides and rushing water overwhelming roads.

A 75-year-old woman was found dead an hour after she was reported missing while evacuating, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Parts of Pohang recorded wind speeds of up to 72 miles per hour and a total of 20 inches of rain through the morning, according to a city official. At one point, the storm was dumping as much as four inches of rain per hour. Videos on social media showed powerful currents flowing through flooded streets, strong winds, and multiple cars submerged in water. Some areas had been hit with power outages, leading some flood victims struggling to find help.

“Bridges are collapsed, houses are flooded, cars are submerged, there are landslides,” said Lee Se-hwan, who works for Ocheon County in Pohang. “I barely made it to work at 3 a.m. because the roads were filled with rainwater,” he added. “Some of my colleagues with smaller cars couldn’t come in.”

A landslide warning was issued for all of Pohang. A video on social media showed a landslide on a hill behind a middle school. The city sent a disaster alert to nearby residents at 8 a.m., asking them to evacuate to a safe place because there was a risk that the building would collapse.

The Ministry of Defense said that a division of the South Korean Marines in Pohang had dispatched firefighters in two amphibious assault vehicles to rescue flood victims.

Fires broke out at a Posco steel plant in the city, according to a company spokeswoman. She said they had been at least partially extinguished. The company reported no casualties and said the fires were related to a power outage.

The South Korean authorities said at least two people were killed and another 10 were missing after Typhoon Hinnamnor made its way across the peninsula on Tuesday.

Rescuers found the body of a woman in her 80s after she called an emergency hotline in Gyeongju city, local officials said. The other death was a woman in her 70s, who died in Pohang, a city north of Busan, while evacuating, according to a statement from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Nine people were reported missing in Pohang, according to the ministry. Some of the worst flooding caused by the typhoon was in Pohang, a coastal city.

Seven of those missing in Pohang were believed to be trapped in an underground parking lot in an apartment complex, where emergency workers were working to remove the water with pumps. Another person was reported missing in a separate underground parking facility, and one person went missing while evacuating, according to the ministry.

The remaining missing person was a man in his mid-twenties in Ulsan, a city south of Gyeongju, after falling into a stream on Monday night, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

While the typhoon caused severe flooding and destruction in the nation’s coastal cities, including Pohang and Busan, the damage was isolated and not widespread. And the number of dead, missing and injured was far lower than those recorded for typhoons of similar strength.

According to experts, South Korea was spared more extensive damage because of tedious preparation, like suspending schools and closing roads, and because the storm moved out to the sea faster than expected.

Typhoon Hinnanmor made landfall in South Korea as one of the nation’s strongest storms on record. It wasn’t the first time a large storm hit the country. The nation began keeping records of typhoons in 1904.

Here are some of the worst storms in South Korea’s history:

• In 1959, Typhoon Sarah became the strongest typhoon on record when it hit the country’s southern regions over the Chuseok holiday. The storm reached maximum wind speeds of 100 miles per hour, dumping 16 inches of rain, killing more than 600 people and injuring thousands, according to Korea’s national archives.

• In 1987, Typhoon Thelma caused more than 300 deaths and caused widespread damage after meteorologists mistakenly forecast that the impact of the storm would largely bypass South Korea.

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• In 1998, Typhoon Yanni drenched the nation with more than 16 inches of rain. At least 57 people were counted as dead or missing, and almost 1,000 hectares of agricultural land were ruined, according to the archives.

• In 2002, Typhoon Rusa killed at least 80 people. Floods brought down a railroad bridge, and a million homes lost electricity.

• In 2003, Typhoon Maemi inflicted similar damage, tearing up railway tracks and halving construction cranes. Maemi’s wind speeds reached up to 134 miles per hour, setting a record.

After harsh criticism of his handling of last month’s deadly flooding in Seoul, President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea met with victims and pushed policy changes to show that his government was prepared for future storms.

The first test will most likely be on Tuesday, when Typhoon Hinnamnor is expected to drench the country.

Local news media reported that Mr. Yoon was preparing to work through Monday evening and into Tuesday morning as the storm, forecast to be the strongest on record to hit South Korea, is expected to make landfall on the nation’s southern coast.

The record rains last month in Seoul, the capital, led to flooding that killed at least nine people, including a family in a basem*nt. The storms are the first natural disasters during Mr. Yoon’s time in office and one of his first major political challenges.

Over the weekend, the presidential office released a statement urging a quick response to any damage and promising that the government would “do its best to keep its citizens and their lives safe.” The government also issued the highest-level warning ahead of the storm, freeing resources to handle any damage from floods and winds.

After last month’s floods, Jo O-seop, a spokesman for the opposition Democratic Party, said that the nation was disappointed to see a president who was “unable to do anything in a disaster situation,” as he was not present in person to oversee response measures for a natural disaster.

The president, who lives in a private residence outside the presidential offices, managed the flood response remotely from his home.

Since then, Mr. Yoon has made visits to affected areas, including the basem*nt home in which a family of three died and an apartment complex that lost power during the storm. In response to the storm, Seoul will halt permits for the construction of basem*nt homes to help prevent drowning from floods.

In preparation for Typhoon Hinnamnor, Mr. Yoon has emphasized the need to “strengthen the inspections for residences of the vulnerable, like basem*nts and low-lying coastal regions.”

The presidential office also announced that he would stay up all night to respond to the storm and would be in 24-hour emergency mode.

Typhoon Hinnamnor disrupted life and travel across South Korea on Tuesday, downing trees and traffic signs, flooding roads, causing power outages and disrupting transportation.

Residents of Jeju Island spent early Tuesday morning in darkness after more than 10,000 homes lost power overnight. The island’s two main cities, Jeju and Seogwipo, recorded six to seven inches of rain, while some parts of the island recorded as much as 37 inches.

At least one storm-related death was reported as of Tuesday afternoon.

Roads and major bridge crossings were closed in cities across the country. Along the Han River, which flows through Seoul, some bridges were closed. In Busan, the southern port city, ocean waves crashed into highways, blocking traffic, and subway and bus services were suspended.

The country’s high-speed rail system paused or delayed most trains across its network ahead of the possibility of floods and strong winds. Airlines canceled all 361 flights to Jeju Island, a popular tourist destination. The Health Ministry closed many Covid testing centers. The National Park Service blocked access to more than 600 hiking trails.

On Jeju Island, the owner of Haemaru Pension said he had fewer guests than usual Monday night, adding that a tree had fallen in front of his building.

Tens of thousands of residents near the southern coast, and in mountainous areas where landslides were a risk, were evacuated from their homes.

At Gori Nuclear Power Plant in the country’s southeast, a generator for one of the reactors stopped operating because of strong winds, according to Yonhap, a news agency. The reactor was stable and there was no risk of a radiation leak, according to the report.

Typhoon Hinnamnor slammed into South Korea on Tuesday. Forecasters say the storm, which formed last week and snaked across East Asia, could be the most powerful on record to hit the country, bringing as much as 24 inches of rain. The storm lashed Japan’s southernmost islands overnight on Monday.

Typhoon Hinnamnor’s winds and rains will lash and drench South Korea through Tuesday, before moving farther north and potentially soaking North Korea. That poses the risk of flooding in the North, where food production is already limited.

While the storm is not expected to hit North Korea directly, the government is on the alert for extreme weather and issued a warning on Monday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news service. Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, held a meeting on Sunday and Monday to discuss disaster readiness, according to Yonhap.

The South Korean military said that on Monday, ahead of the storm, the North had also discharged water from its Hwanggang dam into the Imjin River. That river flows south into the Han River, which bisects Seoul.

The unusually strong rainy season in South Korea this year has also apparently caused damage in North Korea. Last month, the South Korean authorities indicated that bodies found near the border between the Koreas were most likely victims of floods. Last year, state news media reported that over 1,000 homes had been damaged after heavy rains in early August.

Prof. Jeong Su-jong of the department of environmental planning at Seoul National University said that while the wind and rain would not be as strong in North Korea, the damage would be much worse.

“North Korea does not have infrastructure in place to respond to natural disasters like floods or heat waves,” Professor Jeong said. “This makes even small-scale events have large consequences.”

The links between tropical storms and climate change are becoming more apparent. Researchers have found that warming has increased the frequency of major storms because a warmer ocean provides more of the energy that fuels them.

Mr. Kim, the North Korean leader, has acknowledged his country’s chronic food shortage, which he has been unable to alleviate for over a decade. North Korea ranks among the 20 nations with the most severe hunger issues, according to the Global Hunger Index.

While the North has made some progress in easing its hunger levels over the past two decades, the proportion of undernourished people has increased within the same period.