So rain news comes first.
Apparently the rain is record-level: the most it has rained since about a hundred years, in fact. It is also raining profusely - it has been raining somewhere between 100 and 200mm all round Seoul. Parts of Seoul have been flooded, and in other areas people have died from rain, floods, landslides and other disasters.
Not complete or 100% accurate, but a rough summary of what went on until evening.
Note: 1: Where we live, 2: Where we first ride the subway, 3: Where we work. Red line is the route we go for work.
When we first went to work at our usual time, the bus stopped in the middle of the road. The driver announced that the road was blocked from here on, so we had to take the subway. Later, I found out that the area was blocked because landslide occured and people died.
My brother and I took the subway to go to Destination #2 (Sadang), where we would change lanes and then go to Destination #3 (Hapjeong). It was evident that things were kind of serious while we rode the subway; one of the stations we stopped by was caked with mud on the floor. We ended being about half an hour late to work. We heard that other subway lines have been suspended temporarily. Yes, entire lines were suspended.
The rain poured and poured even while we worked (oh right, by the way, it was the last day of work). Just like last year, the people were sad to see us go and gave us warm goodbyes. It was quite touching, and I did enjoy working there, I will let you know, though Holt news is kind of swept by the sidelines from flood news right now.
Because the rain was strong, everyone was let out an hour early (5PM). Because of the landslide, we didn't switch over to the bus Destination #2 but switched to the light blue line (which was not suspended) and took Destination #4 (Indeogwon), where we took the bus home.
(Destination #2 was suspended shortly after we got off.)
Thoughts and comments:
LIES. They said the rainy season was over. LIES I SAY.
The weather forecast has not been at all helpful in this situation - they underestimated the amount of rainfall by a lot, not to mention that several news sources have shown the wrong flood photo for several locations.
On a more serious note, I hoped there would be at least some systematic information on what stations and lines were closed, where to go, what the outside situation is and all that. But all we had to rely on was the internet news, tweets, and security guards telling people not to enter. Oh, and the occasional announcements on the subway system.
I feel like there should be some sort of central announcement system that alerts and informs people what is going on in case of an emergency like this. I know Seoul usually almost never has floods, but come on.
With all those computerized systems of when the bus is coming, with the computerized tickets, with all the safety doors on the subway stations, and with the level of development going on in the entire public transit in general, I expected better. There are big screens and TVs on major subway stations showing public announcements and advertisements; why the fuck aren't you using those for emergency purposes? Where the fuck is your sense of practicality? It's as useless as those high-tech screens on the new UGli lounge that just displays recent library search terms.
People have been relying on twitter of all communication devices to figure out which areas are flooded, which ways are closed, and to see photos of how bad the damage is. It was because there was no other fast and reliable way to get information. Okay, fine, so Koreans are internet nerds who use twitter a lot, good for you. But what about the old and the poor who aren't internet-savvy? Who's going to help them? This is when general public systems like the freaking metro station is of no help.
Jesus Christ, civil services.
