Like a scene from the movie ‘Parasite’: The floods exposed social inequality in South Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) – Using a plastic bowl, Ha In-sik bailed water from his basement apartment in low-income residential Selim district in southwest Seoul on Wednesday, as floods caused by torrential rain forced his family to leave. Sleeping in a nearby park.

The 50-year-old, along with his wife and daughter, collected household appliances, furniture, books and even cutlery, and put them outside to see what could be salvaged.

The scene bore uncomfortable similarities to the sewage-sinked semi-basement apartment depicted in the 2020 Academy Award-winning South Korean film.parasiteThat was the story of rising social inequality in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

The floods caused inconvenience and financial losses in the wealthier parts of the capital, such as the quaint district of Gangnam just a few miles away.

But in places like Salem, floods have wiped out the scant hope that desperate people like Ha had clung to in order to carry on.

“I have no money and nothing. But I came here to live in this basement because it was the only option I had to live with my daughter,” Ha told Reuters.

“But now I’m hopeless. It’s all gone, no help and I don’t even have a spoon to eat food with.”

Ha was not alone in his misery. Other residents of Salem collected water in large bowls or combed the waste to see what was still usable.

On Monday, three family members living in the neighborhood, including a woman with a developmental disability, drowned in their lower floor apartment. President Yoon Seok Yeol visited Selim the next day.

On Wednesday, Yoon apologized for the tragedy and called for measures to improve housing safety to protect the elderly, the poor, the disabled and families, like Ha, whose homes were more vulnerable to flooding.

At least 10 people have died as a result of the torrential rains that have swept the northern part of the country since Monday, knocking out power, causing landslides and flooding roads and subways. Read more

This week’s flood brought torrential rains for 115 years in Seoul, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

As of Wednesday, six people are still missing, at least 570 have temporarily lost their homes, while 1,400 people have been evacuated, most of them in Seoul, the Central Disaster Control and Safety Measures Headquarters said.

As the rainy clouds moved south on Wednesday, recovery efforts are on high gear, at least in the better-off areas.

While large swaths of Selim remained under water, and residents likened conditions to a “mud bath”, most roads in Gangnam were cleared and traffic returned to normal.

Ha said it would take about 10 days to get his apartment back to the point he would return to. He said the only help the government offered was temporary shelter in a gymnasium, which he refused.

An official at the Gwanak district office, which covers Salem, said recovery efforts could be slower there due to the concentration of small apartments and homes lining narrow streets, unlike Gangnam, which has wide boulevards and office buildings.

The official said the number of soldiers involved in recovery would rise from 210 to 500 on Thursday.

“We are making all-out efforts to help residents, bringing everyone from our offices, our troops and our volunteers,” the official said.

Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Hyeyeon Kim, and Daewoung Kim; Additional reporting by Minow Park. Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

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