Typhoon Hinnamnor returned to the sea on Tuesday morning, after lashing South Korea with torrential rain and winds overnight. There were reports of sporadic flooding, but damage across the country appeared to have been limited early on Tuesday.
The storm passed Jeju Island at midnight local time and made landfall on the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula at 4:50 a.m. before returning to sea around 7:10 a.m., and its rating was downgraded to “strong” from “extremely strong” with The Korea Meteorological Administration said winds of up to 96 miles per hour are being monitored. By 1 p.m., typhoon warnings were lifted across South Korea.
One death was reported in the southern city of Pohang. Heavy rain and strong winds knocked down trees and walls and caused flooding and power outages across South Korea. According to the Korea Electric Power Corporation, more than 66,000 homes have lost power. Fire departments across the country have responded to hundreds of hurricane-related emergencies.
“The wind was crazy and it was pouring in,” said Kim Sun-myung, who was working at a grocery store in the southern city of Busan on Tuesday morning, adding that another store across the street was closed due to the typhoon.
He said the wind had calmed down and the rain had stopped around seven in the morning. The city’s train and bus service has been restored and some roads have been restored. But the wind cut off the outside lighting used to light the sign to Mr. Kim’s store.
On Tuesday morning, President Yoon Seok-yeol urged Koreans not to let their guard down as the typhoon remained near the east coast.
He praised his government’s plan, which included texting evacuation orders and blocking roads, as key to limiting the storm’s impact.
This is the second major storm to hit the country in a matter of weeks. Last month, the capital, Seoul The heaviest rainfall in decades, causing floods that killed at least nine people. The storm damaged some subway stations and caused minor power and water outages. Mr. Yun promised to take measures to prevent such damage from happening again.
Most of the country will see between 4 and 12 inches of rain and peak winds will reach 134 miles per hour, the Korea Meteorological Administration said. Over the weekend, the government issued the most severe hurricane warning, the highest alert level in five years.
This rainy season’s storms have been particularly strong, and forecasters have said Hinnamor’s strength may be comparable to that of two devastating hurricanes from two decades ago, Rosa and Maimi. in 2002, hurricane rosa It swept the country, leaving dozens dead and destroying more than a million homes. the following year, Hurricane Maemi It killed more than 100 people and caused $1.6 billion in damage.
The terms hurricane and hurricane refer to tropical cyclones It is applied to storms Depending on where you grew up. Hurricanes develop in the Pacific Northwest and usually affect Asia. Hurricanes form in the North Atlantic, Northeast Pacific, Caribbean Sea, or Gulf of Mexico.
in the Atlantic Ocean, major hurricanes They are defined as tropical cyclones with maximum sustainable winds of 111 mph or higher, and are defined as either Category 3, 4, and 5 storms. But in the Asia Pacific region, there are differences in how countries classify cyclones.
The links between tropical storms and climate change are become clearer. The researchers found that warming increased the frequency of major storms because a warmer ocean provided more energy that fuels them.