South Korea evacuating World Scout Jamboree site as Typhoon Khanun bears down

Seoul, South Korea — South Korea will evacuate tens of thousands of scouts by bus from a coastal jamboree site as Tropical Storm Khanun looms, officials said Monday. Beginning Tuesday morning, vehicles will move 36,000 scouts — mostly teenagers — from the World Scout Jamboree in the southwestern county of Buan, according to Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

He said most of the scouts, who come from 158 countries, will be accommodated at venues in the capital city, Seoul, and the nearby metropolitan area. Officials were trying to secure spaces at government training centers and education facilities as well as hotels. Kim said it would take six hours or more to evacuate the scouts from the campsite, which organizers said will no longer be used for any event after they leave.

U.S. and U.K. scouts already left

Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site, which is made on land reclaimed from sea. The British scouts were transferred to hotels in Seoul while the American scouts were moved to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base about 45 miles south of Seoul.

About 40,000 scouts came to the jamboree, built on land reclaimed from the sea. About 4,500 were from the U.K., representing the largest national contingent, while about 1,000 were from the United States. 

roughly 85 miles away, until departing for the United States on Aug. 11, the organization said in an email to parents and staff that day.

The decision to leave early was due to the "ongoing extreme weather and resulting conditions at the jamboree site," according to the email.

Over 600 people were shuttled from the campground on Sunday to Fort Humphreys, the U.S. military publication Stars and Stripes reported, citing information from a U.S. Army spokesperson. The American evacuees were expected to remain housed at the base until they fly back to the U.S. on Aug. 11, according to an email sent to parents by the Scouting organization, cited by Stars and Stripes.

The announcement of the evacuation plans came after the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it had urgently called on South Korea to move the scouts from the storm's path and "provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries."

South Korea categorizes Khanun as a typhoon, defined as a tropical storm with winds stronger than 38 miles per hour. South Korea's weather agency expects Khanun to weaken to a storm within the next five days.

South Korea's government did not immediately specify any venues where the scouts will be staying. David Venn, global director of communications for the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said it was still waiting for government officials to provide detailed plans.

Typhoon Khanun forecast

Khanun has taken an unusual, meandering path around Japan's southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power to thousands of homes and disrupting flights and train services. On Monday afternoon, it had sustained winds of 67 miles per hour, with higher gusts, and was forecast to maintain that strength as it brushes Japan's main island of Kyushu this week, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

South Korea's weather agency reported that Khanun was expected to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday morning, potentially packing winds as strong as 95 miles per hour. Large swaths of the country's south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as Wednesday, the agency said.

The plans to evacuate the scouts were announced hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol's office said he had called for "contingency" plans, including relocating them to hotels and other facilities in the greater capital area.

The agency said the storm was at about 99 miles east of Amami city on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu and moving gradually toward the north as of Monday afternoon. It warned residents in affected regions to watch out for mudslides, high winds and rough seas.

The storm has caused one death and 70 injuries on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, according to the country's Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Due to the forecast of harsh weather in the region, West Japan Railway Co. said there was a possibility of suspending "Shinkansen" bullet train services from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.

Scouts "not taking any chances"

Hundreds of participants had been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday. Long before the event's start, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat.

Kirvil Kaasa of the Norwegian Guide and Scout Association told Norway's news agency NTB that "the evacuation is taking place well before the (storm)."

"We are not taking any chances, and the health and safety of our Norwegian participants is the most important thing," she told NTB. Some 700 scouts from the Scandinavian country took part in the event and they were to be relocated to a U.S. military base, NTB said.

Kim Hyun-sook, South Korea's minister of gender equality and family, said officials are trying to arrange new cultural events and activities for the scouts before they leave, including a possible K-pop concert at a Seoul soccer stadium on Friday to go with the closing ceremony.

"We don't see it that way," Kim said when asked whether the scouts' departure from Buan should be seen as an early end for the jamboree. "We are creating new programs with regional governments away from the campsite, so it could be said jamboree is widening."

Organizers earlier on Monday were scurrying to come up with plans to evacuate the scouts ahead of the storm's arrival. Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the jamboree's organizing committee, said organizers had secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centers and gyms, in regions near Buan.

South Korean tech behemoth Samsung stepped in to help amid the chaos, sending medical staff to help scouts overcome by the heat, along with electric carts to help people navigate the sprawling site, air conditioners, toilets, generators and a range of other equipment.

CBS News' Jen Kwon in Seoul contributed to this report. 

In:
• South Korea
• Tropical Storm
• Boy Scouts of America