South Korea evacuates thousands of scouts from coast as tropical storm nears

Carrying huge backpacks and water bottles, tens of thousands of scouts began arriving at university dormitories, government and corporate training centres, and hotels around Seoul and other inland cities on Tuesday afternoon as the South Korean government evacuated the World Scout Jamboree ahead of a tropical storm.

The South Korean government had scrambled to keep the 12-day gathering of Scouts going in the face of struggles with heat, hygiene and land use controversies, as thousands of British and American Scouts departed over the weekend.

It wasn't until Monday afternoon that officials announced the decision to abandon the coastal campsite in the southwestern town of Buan, after forecasters raised alarms that tropical storm Khanun was heading toward the Korean Peninsula.

The 37,000 Scouts, who hailed from 156 countries and were mostly teenagers, folded up their tents before boarding over 1,000 vehicles for the evacuation. The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) issued a statement at 9:30 p.m. local time saying all participants had left the site.

Most of the scouts will be accommodated in Seoul and the surrounding area, with others sent to other provinces in the country's north and central regions.

Concert planned for transported scouts

South Korean officials say the jamboree will continue in the form of cultural events and activities, including a K-Pop concert in Seoul on Friday.

Scouts from Britain, who had transferred to hotels in Seoul over the weekend because of the extreme heat at the Jamboree site, visited a war memorial and the former presidential palace.

Hundreds of scouts from Norway had already left the the site on Monday, citing concerns about the complications of moving together with tens of thousands of other Scouts. Geir Olav Kaase, leader of the Norwegian contingent, said the Scouts arrived at their hotels in Incheon by 9 p.m. Monday.

WATCH | Canadian scouts among those forced to evacuate jamboree campsite:

Hundreds of Canadians evacuated from World Scout Jamboree in South Korea

1 day ago

Duration 1:54

Hundreds of Canadians are among the 36,000 people being forced to leave the site of the World Scout Jamboree in Buan, South Korea, as a typhoon bears down on the region. The scouts are instead going to relocate the jamboree to Seoul.

Scouts Canada said 235 Canadian youth and 143 volunteers were among those bused out of the jamboree site.

A spokesperson for Scouts Canada, Anissa Stambouli, said the Canadians are in "good spirits and have continued to enjoy jamboree experience" in Seoul, adding "parents of participants are being kept informed."

Concerns had been raised beforehand about having such large numbers of young people in a vast, treeless area lacking protection from heat as South Korea grappled with one of its hottest summers in years. After the Jamboree began, hundreds of participants were treated for heat-related ailments.

Further campsite use halted

The government insisted the event was safe enough to continue and channelled resources to keep the event going, adding medical staff, air-conditioned buses, military shade structures, and hundreds of workers to maintain bathrooms and showers, which some Scouts had complained were filthy or unkempt.

Organizers said the campsite will not be used for any other events after the scouts leave.

Tropical storm Khanun has meandered around Japan's southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power and damaging homes.

Japan bullet train services on hold

Early Tuesday morning, the storm was centred 350 kilometres south of Kagoshima, a city on the southwestern tip of Japan's main southern island of Kyushu. Khanun produced winds of 108 km/h with gusts to 144 km/h and was slowly moving north, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported.

The West Japan Railway Co. said it would suspend some Shinkansen bullet train services on the country's main island of Honshu from Tuesday night through Wednesday morning. Flights and ferries in and out of Kagoshima in southern Kyushu also were suspended Tuesday, according to the prefecture.

South Korea's weather agency, which measured the storm at typhoon strength of 126 km/h, expected it to gain strength slightly before making landfall Thursday morning. It's expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains to South Korea from Wednesday to Friday.

In an emergency meeting to discuss the storm on Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called for officials to be aggressive with disaster prevention measures, including evacuations of residents in risk areas, to prevent injuries or deaths. He also said the country will do its "utmost" to ensure the safety of the scouts so that they can "return home with good memories."

South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety instructed local officials to prepare to shut down coastal areas, hiking trails, river parks, underpass tunnels and other places vulnerable to flooding.

More than 270 police cars and four helicopters were deployed to escort the buses transporting the scouts, said Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min.

"This is the first time in more than 100 years of World Scout Jamborees that we have had to face such compounded challenges," said Ahmad Alhendawi, secretary general of WOSM, who credited South Korea's government of "mobilizing all available resources" into the relocation effort.

"It's disappointing that these adverse weather conditions have forced us to shift our plans," he said.