Typhoon Hinnamnor passes South Korea, leaving one dead and several missing

A road is damaged as waves hit a shore in Ulsan, Tuesday. (Yonhap via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network)

SEOUL — Typhoon Hinnamnor, the 11th typhoon this year, passed South Korea on Tuesday, leaving one dead and two missing, the government said.

Although not included in the central government tally, eight additional people were reported missing in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. The missing people are reported to have entered underground parking lots at two separate apartment complexes to move their vehicles as water flooded the parking lots.

President Yoon Suk-yeol is said to be considering visiting the city as the search goes on for the missing.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, Typhoon Hinnamnor passed Jeju Island at midnight and made landfall on the southern coast of the country at 4:50 a.m. Tuesday. The typhoon then headed back out to sea at 7:10 a.m.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Typhoon Hinnamnor moved northeast at a speed of 62 kilometers per hour near Ulleung Island, an island east of the Korean Peninsula. The typhoon’s atmospheric pressure reached 965 hectopascals at its center, with a maximum wind speed of 37 meters per second.

Typhoon Hinnamnor was expected to pass the northeastern coast of Ulleung Island — 330 km away from the island — at around 3 p.m. and approach an area 420 km away from Sapporo, Japan at 9 p.m.

The typhoon is expected to weaken further and become an extratropical cyclone once it approaches Sapporo, the state weather agency said.

As the typhoon moved away from the country, South Korea also lifted typhoon warnings in most areas, with some exceptions in the coastal regions as of noon Tuesday.

Typhoon Hinnamnor dumped heavy rains in the southern part of the country, as well as in Jeju Island. Between Saturday and Tuesday morning, the mountain area in Jeju had an accumulated rainfall of 1,058 millimeters. Gyeongju, South Gyeongsang Province, also had 447.5 mm of rain, followed by 418.2 mm in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Ulsan also had 385.5 mm of rain.

The National Fire Agency said 13 people have been rescued from nine accidents that took place under the influence of Typhoon Hinnamnor.

A total of 66,341 homes suffered power outages, and around 45 percent of them have been recovered, according to Korea Electric Power.

The number of people who were temporarily evacuated for safety concerns came to 2,909 from 2,143 households. In South Gyeongsang Province, 1,620 people were evacuated, followed by 723 people in South Jeolla Province. In Busan, 379 people were evacuated from their homes. Seoul only reported three people from two households temporarily left their houses.

Three houses in total in Jeju and Gyeonggi Province and one building in Jeju were reported to have been inundated so far, while one house in the central city of Sejong was destroyed.

Farmlands in the country also reported damages. The government said a total of 1,320 hectares of farmlands have been damaged nationwide, with 477 hectares in South Gyeongsang Province, 411 hectares in South Jeolla Province, 280 hectares in Jeju Island and 115 hectares in North Gyeongsang Province.

Typhoon Hinnamnor was previously expected to be one of the strongest typhoons that South Korea has ever embraced. In terms of atmospheric pressure, Typhoon Hinnamnor ranked third at 955 hpa, following Typhoon Maemi’s 955 hpa.

In terms of maximum wind speed, Typhoon Hinnamnor came in eighth place with a maximum wind speed of 37.4 meters per second, significantly lower than Maemi’s 51.1 mps.

The less strong winds could have helped the country avoid severe damage from the typhoon, said Woo Jin-kyu, a senior analyst at the weather agency. However, Woo stressed that the winds were still strong enough to cause significant damage, and the days of taking precautionary measures prior to the typhoon’s arrival mainly helped the country avoid severe damage, unlike the case of Maemi in 2003.

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