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Members of the fire department’s search team guide an individual who was trapped in a flooded apartment basement parking garage in Pohang to safety on Sept. 6. Rain from Typhoon Hinnamnor caused the garage to flood, trapping seven people within it. (Maeil Shinmun)

“There were times when I felt like giving up. But I couldn’t because of my children.”

A 39-year-old man surnamed Jeon was the first survivor found among eight people reported missing on Tuesday when a Pohang apartment building’s underground parking facility flooded. Jeon’s rescue came after he had survived for 13 hours in the submerged garage.

The garage had a curved layout, with a space near the ceiling at the entrance where the water had not reached the top. Jeon survived there for over 13 hours by holding onto a piece of debris before he was eventually rescued.

The Gyeongbuk Fire Service Headquarters reported that one missing person had been rescued from the underground parking garage at the apartment in the Indeok neighborhood of Pohang’s Nam (South) District at around 8:15 pm on Tuesday.

“Four emergency special response team members were searching through the flooded parking garage when they rescued a 39-year-old male surnamed Jeon,” an official with the headquarters said, adding that they had “performed emergency measures after the rescue before transporting [Jeon] to the hospital.”

Describing the rescue, the official said, “There was an air pocket that had formed near the ceiling inside the parking garage, and [Jeon] held on to a pipe that was floating in the water. Once he saw the rescue team’s light, he swam out.”

Speaking afterward in a telephone interview with Yonhap news, Jeon was quoted as saying, “I couldn’t give up because of my children.”

Seven residents were reported missing when the apartment’s underground parking facility was flooding due to torrential rains during the early morning hours on Tuesday. As of 8:30 pm, a total of 69 firefighters, police, and other workers were using 29 different pieces of equipment, including draining pumps, in an effort to drain the garage and rescue any survivors.

Among the seven people reported missing in the apartment complex that day, Jeon was rescued at around 8:15 pm, while a woman identified by the surname Kim was rescued at 9:41 pm.

By Lee Jung-ha, staff reporter; Kim Gyu-hyun, staff reporter

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