LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The students died as mud and debris engulfed them as they slept in a resort cabin in Chuncheon, according to fire officials.

More than 750 rescue workers had been dispatched to the site after the collapse occurred, according to the Central Disaster Relief Center. In addition, about 400 families have lost their homes and more than 14,000 were left without power.

The hillside gave way during a summer of record-setting rainfall, which has caused flooding and major traffic disruptions across portions of the country.

Chuncheon is about 45 miles northeast of the Seoul, which has seen more than 15 inches of rain this week.

Sixty households in the capital have been cut off by high water, and six people are missing, the disaster center reported.

The Korea Meteorological Agency issued a special heavy rainfall alert for cities in the center of the country. The forecast calls for the downpour to continue at a rate of 2.4 inches per hour over the next day.

"This is a lot of rain considering that the amount we saw yesterday and today consists of three-quarters of what we got during the rainy season," Cheung Kwan-young from the meteorological agency said.

Witnesses interviewed on television likened the sound of the landslide to a massive explosion or a screaming freight train and described the screaming they heard as buildings were carried away by rivers of mud.

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