It's not raining, it's flooding

We have had more than a year's worth of rainfall in the past month. Half of it seems to have fallen in the past two days, and more is falling today. When the guerilla rains started most thought it would last for about a day but it has been storming nonstop, complete with thunder and lightning.

The first day I cancelled my evening appointment and hurried home to avoid the pelting rain. The next day I was on the highways of outskirt Seoul, while the city fell deeper and deeper into water. Worst rain in 100 years, they're saying.





The Sadang area where I was waiting for the bus in the video clip turned into this the very next day:

Subway stations are flooding, cars are underwater.

Landslides are happening, causing many casualties. This is in Daejeon; it's not only Seoul, the whole nation is under a storm cloud.

The extent of the damages are staggering. This photo says it all:

Flood warnings are still effective nationwide as I write. The National Emergency Management Agency has safety guidelines on their site for emergencies like this (English version) :
http://eng.nema.go.kr/sub/cms4/4_2.asp

Among all the guidelines, I'd like to emphasize: "Avoid going near street lights, traffic signal lights, and power lines."  And even if it means going a long way 'round, try not to wade in water even if the water is shallow. You never know where an electric current may be.

All the major TV channels are broadcasting special weather reports all day. Be sure to tune in and be safe.

Photos from Yonhap News: http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/

Heartache

Haneda airport, October, 2009

I go to Tokyo almost every year. I have friends and acquaintances who live there. There are memories that lurk in various corners of the city, where my stories have been written and told.

Like most people, I have spent the past few days glued to the news of the terrible earthquake in Japan. Even after hearing news that those I know were okay, my heart sank lower and lower as news came in. I'm not watching live footage anymore because I can't take it. There are images swimming in my mind that I want to forget, even though I wasn't even really there. I cannot imagine the pain and loss and grief and all the mixed emotions that the Japanese are going through right now.

Just hoping that there will be no more injury to the country nor the people. I truly hope.

Family war

Yeonpyeong Island in flames - photo from Yonhap News

I've written and rewritten this post about a dozen times.

On November 23rd, the North lost its mind and a small island inhabited by fishermen and their families soon found itself in total chaos, with both military and civilian casualties. The whole country was in complete shock and bewilderment. Even my loquacious self was at a loss for words; exclamations full of foul expletives was all that I could manage.


Technically, the Korean War never ended. There has always been tension on the Korean peninsula, military skirmishes now and then. We in the South learned to live with it, tolerate, persevere, deal with the problems as they came. Why? Because we're not talking about a neighboring country. This is a country divided, a family torn apart, with some wounds so deep they'll never heal - but that doesn't change the fact that we're family. You don't give up on family.


But this time it's a bit different. Crazy brother has gone over the frickin' line. You give and you give and the selfish bastard just throws a temper tantrum of epic proportion, not caring who gets hurt in the process. So what do you do?

As a mere citizen, there's nothing substantial that you can do, unfortunately. You wait for the decisions made by the "big people", who might not necessarily be whom you voted for, whose decisions might not be to your liking. There's a Korean word for this: 'dahp dahp' (답답), i.e. 'stifling', where you feel helpless and frustrated and trapped at the same time. I am lost in a field of dahp dahp right now,

For those who lost their lives, R.I.P.