Along the coastlines and mountain slopes of East and Southeast Asia, the sky has delivered a reckoning. Record monsoon rains — including a single hour in Geoje, South Korea that surpassed anything measured since 1972 — have triggered landslides and floods that have claimed lives, stranded thousands, and overwhelmed the infrastructure of entire cities. Scientists trace the intensification to a strengthening El Niño, a reminder that the atmosphere's ancient rhythms are being rewritten, and that what feels like a series of disasters is in fact a single, unfolding condition.
Record rainfall triggers deadly landslide in South Korea as Asia faces extreme weather
One person killed in South Korean landslide, two injured; 10 deaths in Japan from flooding and carbon monoxide poisoning; thousands stranded at Narita Airport.
The ground gave way. A landslide tore into an apartment building.
Mark
Why does a single hour of rain in one city matter enough to tell this story?
Mimi
Because 124.5 millimeters in sixty minutes is not normal. It's the highest measurement that city has recorded in fifty-four years. When the ground receives that much water that fast, it becomes unstable. The earth moves. Buildings collapse. People die.
Mark
But this is happening across multiple countries at once. Is that the real story—the regional pattern?
Mimi
Both are the story. The individual tragedy in Geoje shows what extreme weather actually looks like on the ground. The regional pattern explains why it's happening and what's coming next. El Niño is warming the system. Typhoons are getting stronger. This isn't a one-time event.
Mark
The man who died from carbon monoxide poisoning—he was trying to survive the power outage, right?
Mimi
Exactly. The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes. He used a generator indoors to stay warm or to have light. He didn't know, or couldn't avoid, the danger. The disaster creates cascading problems. The immediate threat is the water. The secondary threat is what people do to cope with losing power.
Mark
What should people in the region be preparing for?
Mimi
More of this. Forecasters are saying the typhoon season will be more intense than usual. The infrastructure is already strained. Roads are damaged, power grids are compromised, emergency services are stretched. The next storm could hit systems that haven't fully recovered from the last one.
El Pulso
- In Geoje, 124.5mm of rain fell in a single hour — a record unbroken since 1972 — and the saturated earth gave way, burying an apartment building's first floor and killing one resident.
- Across the region, the scale of disruption is staggering: cars swept through streets like debris, power lost to tens of thousands of homes, and Narita Airport paralyzed with stranded travelers.
- The human cost is compounding in unexpected ways — a man in Japan died not from floodwater but from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator indoors to survive the blackout.
- Authorities in South Korea scrambled to respond, shutting tourist sites, suspending bus routes, and urging residents to evacuate before the worst rainfall even arrived.
- Forecasters are now warning that a strong El Niño is supercharging this typhoon season beyond normal thresholds, meaning the disasters already witnessed may be only the opening chapter.
Along the coastlines and mountain slopes of East and Southeast Asia, the sky has delivered a reckoning. Record monsoon rains — including a single hour in Geoje, South Korea that surpassed anything measured since 1972 — have triggered landslides and floods that have claimed lives, stranded thousands, and overwhelmed the infrastructure of entire cities. Scientists trace the intensification to a strengthening El Niño, a reminder that the atmosphere's ancient rhythms are being rewritten, and that what feels like a series of disasters is in fact a single, unfolding condition.
On a Monday morning in Geoje, South Korea, the ground gave way. A landslide collapsed the first floor of an apartment building, trapping residents in the rubble. Rescuers pulled three people free — one was pronounced dead at the scene, two others wounded. The cause was a rainfall event that meteorologists called historic: 124.5 millimeters in a single hour, the highest recorded in Geoje since tracking began in 1972.
The destruction was not confined to that one hour. Between Sunday and Monday, the city absorbed over 400 millimeters of rain overnight. Streets became rivers, cars were swept away, and authorities suspended bus service, closed tourist sites, and urged residents to stay off roads and away from riverbanks. The warnings had come before the worst arrived — but the worst came anyway.
Geoje was one node in a much larger catastrophe. China, Japan, and the Philippines were all absorbing back-to-back storms of unusual ferocity. In Japan's Chiba prefecture, ten people died and thousands were stranded at Narita Airport as the power grid failed across more than 20,000 households. Among the dead was a man in his thirties, killed not by floodwater but by carbon monoxide — he had been running a generator indoors to cope with the blackout, a desperate measure that proved fatal.
Behind all of it, meteorologists identified a common driver: a strong El Niño effect, active since June, warming sea surfaces and intensifying the storms forming above them. Forecasters warned that this typhoon season would be significantly more severe than normal. What the region has already endured — the records broken, the lives lost, the infrastructure overwhelmed — may be only the beginning of what the coming months will bring.
On Monday morning in Geoje, a city in South Korea's southeastern Gyeongsang province, the ground gave way. A landslide tore into an apartment building, collapsing its first floor and trapping the people inside. Rescuers extracted three residents from the rubble. One of them was pronounced dead at the scene. Two others were wounded. The disaster was the direct result of what meteorologists were calling record-breaking rainfall—124.5 millimeters fell in a single hour, the most the city had recorded since the national weather service began tracking Geoje's precipitation in 1972.
The deluge had been relentless. Between Sunday and Monday alone, the city absorbed more than 400 millimeters of rain overnight. Videos circulating on social media showed the scale of the inundation: cars submerged in floodwaters, streets transformed into rushing currents that swept vehicles along like toys. The city's authorities responded by shutting down tourist attractions, suspending bus service, and halting household waste collection. Roads were either flooded or damaged beyond use. On Sunday, before the worst of the rainfall arrived, officials had already issued urgent warnings—stay off the roads, keep away from riverbanks, evacuate to higher ground if instructed.
Geoje's catastrophe was not isolated. Across East and Southeast Asia, back-to-back storms were hammering the region with unprecedented force. China, Japan, and the Philippines all faced widespread flooding and landslides. The scale of the disaster was becoming clearer by the day. In Japan's Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, the rainfall was described by forecasters as unprecedented. Ten people died. Thousands of travelers found themselves stranded at Narita Airport, unable to leave. The power grid failed across more than 20,000 households. One of those deaths carried a grim footnote: a man in his thirties was found dead in his home from carbon monoxide poisoning. He had been running a generator indoors to cope with the power outage—a desperate measure that became fatal.
Meteorologists pointed to a larger pattern driving this cascade of disasters. A strong El Niño effect, which had begun in June, was warming global temperatures and intensifying typhoons across the region. This year's typhoon season, forecasters warned, was shaping up to be significantly more severe than normal. The atmospheric conditions that produce these storms were being supercharged. What had already arrived—the record rainfall, the landslides, the deaths—was likely only the beginning of what the region would face in the months ahead.
Citas Notables
This year's typhoon season was shaping up to be more intense than usual, due to a strong El Niño that began in June.— Forecasters
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