Jara Island, the'festival island' on the Bukhan River in Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-gun, disappeared today (6th) at dawn.

As the water spilled from the discharge of the Soyang River Dam reached Gapyeong yesterday, Jarasum was submerged during the time when the water level in the Bukhan River rose.

The flooding of Jarasum is not necessarily due to the discharge of Soyang River Dam.

The floodgates of the Soyang River Dam were opened in 2017, but were not locked at this time.

Recently, over 600 mm of torrential rains over the Gapyeong area overlapped, accelerating the rise in the North Korean river.

The invasion of Jarasum has been four years since 2016.

At the time, there was a water bomb during the rainy season, but there was no discharge from the Soyang River Dam.

Gapyeong-gun previously evacuated the Soyang River Dam to evacuate Jarasum and evacuated mobile facilities such as caravans to highlands.

Soyang River Dam opened the floodgates at 3:00 pm yesterday and releases up to 3,000 tons per second.

Resident A (49), who had not escaped from the watery Jara Island, saved his life with the help of the 119 rescue teams at Gapyeong Fire Station.


Mr. A fell asleep at the Jarasum grass square around 8:00 pm yesterday, and in the meantime, water was isolated.

After receiving the report, the 119 rescuers were dispatched by boat and found Mr. A in about 10 minutes, but were rescued in about 1 hour and 30 minutes due to difficulty in access due to the flow rate.

Jara Island consists of four islands: Dongdo, Seodo, Namdo, and Jungdo.

The area is 661,000 square meters, which is 1.5 times that of Nami Island.

It was called ``Chinese Island'' because it was said that Chinese people lived and farmed since 1943.

Jarasum was submerged whenever there was a lot of rain due to the influence of sand extraction, which resulted in alienation from development and even the residents did not recognize it as an island.

However, due to flood control of the Bukhan River water system dams, Jarasum has drastically reduced the number of submersions and has been located in the center of Gapyeong tourism since the 2004 International Jazz Festival.

Camping grounds have been set up in Seodo, and four seasons are held in the middle, including jazz festivals.

Namdo was transformed into a'flower island' last year with a flower complex and landscape lighting installed.

Dongdo has been neglected for a while, but Gapyeong-gun is creating a walking park here.

(Photo = Gapyeong County, Gapyeong Fire Station, Yonhap News)