🌊 Typhoons, Floods & Earthquakes in Korea

Korea pushes disaster alerts to every phone in an affected area via cell broadcast (CBS) — no app or SIM registration needed, which is why tourists get them too. There are three tiers, and the tier tells you how seriously to react. Since early 2024, the more urgent alerts have also begun to include a short English keyword for the disaster type (and magnitude for earthquakes), but the body of the message is still in Korean.

To get full alerts in English, install the free Emergency Ready App by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety — it is the foreigner-facing version of the Korean 안전디딤돌 (Safety Stepping Stone) app, available on Google Play and the App Store. It delivers translated emergency alerts in 22 languages (expanded in June 2026 from the original five: English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai), a shelter locator, embassy contacts, and offline disaster behavior guides. Set your region in the app so you receive alerts for where you actually live.

If you need a human, Seoul's 120 Dasan Call Center offers foreign-language help: dial 02-120, then 9, then 1 for English (weekdays 09:00–18:00; Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mongolian also available). The Danuri helpline (1577-1366) supports 13 languages for migrants, and for a life-threatening emergency call 119 and say "English" first — the dispatcher will patch in an interpreter, so stay on the line even if there is a short silence.

Rough reading guide for an alert you cannot translate in time: 대피 means evacuate, 침수 means flooding, 지진 means earthquake, 태풍 means typhoon, and 호우 means heavy rain. If the alert arrived with the loudest siren tone and your area is under heavy rain, assume it is an evacuation instruction and move away from low-lying and underground spaces first, then translate.

1. Stay out of underground spaces when heavy rain is falling or forecast. This is the single most important rule in Korea: in August 2022, people died when their semi-basement (반지하) homes in Seoul flooded, and a month later seven people drowned in an apartment's underground parking garage in Pohang during Typhoon Hinnamnor — most were trying to move their cars. If rain is intense, do not go down to move your car.

2. Avoid riversides, streams, underpasses, and construction sites. Urban streams like those feeding the Han River rise extremely fast, and riverside parks and paths are closed during heavy rain — do not go for a run or to take photos. Stay clear of construction sites and old walls, which can collapse in strong wind and saturated ground.

3. About taping windows: tests by Korea's National Disaster Management Research Institute found that the famous X-shape tape or wet newspaper on the glass does little to stop windows breaking. What works is stopping the window from rattling in its frame — lock the windows, wedge cardboard or sponge into gaps between the window and frame, and tape around the edges where glass meets frame. Then stay away from windows during the storm's peak.

4. Before the storm: charge your phone and a power bank, check the Emergency Ready App for your nearest shelter, and stock a day or two of water and food. If authorities issue an evacuation alert for your neighborhood, leave early — evacuating in the dark through flooded streets is far more dangerous.

1. If you live in a basement or semi-basement and water starts coming in, evacuate the moment it reaches ankle height. Once water outside a door reaches roughly knee height, water pressure can make the door impossible to open from inside — this is how the 2022 Seoul semi-basement deaths happened. Do not stay to save belongings or pets if water is rising.

2. Never drive into a flooded underpass or road where you cannot see the surface. If your car stalls in rising water, abandon it immediately and move to higher ground — a car is replaceable. If the door will not open against the water, escape through a window (buses in Korea are required to carry glass-breaking hammers, but most private cars are not — keep an escape hammer in your car in advance, or strike a corner of the side window with any hard metal object, such as the steel prongs of a removed headrest).

3. On foot, avoid moving through floodwater: manhole covers can be dislodged and invisible underwater, and streetlight poles or exposed wiring can carry current. If you must move, use a stick to probe the ground ahead and walk along building walls away from the road's center.

1. When shaking starts, drop under a sturdy table, cover your head and neck, and hold on until the shaking stops. Do not run outside during the shaking — most injuries come from falling objects and broken glass. If you are in bed, stay there and cover your head with a pillow.

2. After the shaking stops, turn off gas if you can do so quickly, open a door to secure an exit, and leave the building using the stairs — never the elevator. Once outside, keep away from building walls, signs, and glass facades, and move to a wide open area.

3. Korea designates official earthquake outdoor evacuation sites (지진 옥외대피장소) — usually school playgrounds and parks chosen because nothing can fall on you there. Find your nearest one in advance on the Emergency Ready App or the National Disaster and Safety Portal (safekorea.go.kr); searching 지진대피소 in Naver Map or Kakao Map also works. For a prolonged displacement, authorities open indoor relief shelters (지진 실내구호소) separately.

4. Expect aftershocks and follow alert messages rather than rumors. If you are on the east coast and feel a strong quake or receive a tsunami warning (지진해일), move immediately to high ground away from the shore.

The Emergency Ready App has a shelter map that shows civil defense shelters, earthquake outdoor evacuation sites, and heat/cold shelters near your current location — open it once now, while you have signal and time, and learn the two or three sites nearest your home and workplace. The app's behavior guides work offline, which matters if networks are congested during a disaster.

The same data is on the National Disaster and Safety Portal (safekorea.go.kr), and major Korean map apps (Naver Map, Kakao Map, TMAP) return official shelters when you search 지진대피소 (earthquake shelter) or 민방위대피소 (civil defense shelter). Civil defense shelters are typically subway stations and large building basements — good for air-raid alerts, but the wrong place in a flood; earthquake evacuation sites are open ground. Match the shelter type to the disaster.

If your home or property is damaged by a storm or flood, report the damage to your local district office (시·군·구청 or 주민센터) promptly — under Korea's natural disaster recovery rules, damage reports are generally expected within about 10 days of the disaster's end. Take photos before cleaning up, and keep receipts for emergency repairs.

Korea operates natural disaster relief payments (재난지원금) for verified damage such as flooded or destroyed housing, and government guidance for foreigners (GOV.KR) lists foreign residents who are victims of a natural disaster among those eligible for emergency welfare support. That said, eligibility and amounts for some relief programs can depend on registration and visa status, and rules change — ask your district office or the Danuri helpline (1577-1366) about your specific case rather than assuming either way.

Note that Korea also sells a government-subsidized storm, flood and earthquake insurance (풍수해·지진재해보험, renamed from 풍수해보험 in 2024) for housing and small businesses; if you own or run property here, it is worth asking about, since insured damage is generally compensated through the policy instead of the relief payment.