Hagibis: Japan Rescuers Still Scrambling

Rescue workers in Japan continued to search for the missing on Wednesday as the death toll from one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in decades rose to 74, the public broadcaster said. Many people were drowned in the flooding after scores of rivers burst their banks.

As per reports, 12 people remained missing and more than 220 were injured afterTyphoon Hagibis swept through the country over the weekend. More than 5,000 people are still inevacuation centers in 13 prefectures, almost a third of them in hard-hitFukushima Prefecture, 269km (167 miles), north of the capital Tokyo. 

Across the country, 13,000 homes were flooded during the height of thestorm, while 1,100 werepartly destroyed. Throughout the eastern half of the main island of Honshu, 52 rivers flooded.

Weather officials in Japan were quoted as saying that many places thatflooded received up to 40 percent of their annual rainfall in just two days.Residents in Fukushima Prefecture, which suffered the highest number ofcasualties, were busy dumping water-damaged furniture and rubbish onto thestreets. Many elderly remained in evacuation centers, unable to clean up theirhomes.

Survivors in Fukushima described how water rose rapidly to chest-heightin about an hour, making it hard to escape to higher ground. "Nobody from city hall hascome to check on us yet," Yoshinagi Higuchi said on Tuesday, as he and hisneighbors piled sodden tatami mats and other damaged furniture onto the street.

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, promised on Tuesday to take action after reports emerged of the two men being denied entry to the shelter in Taito ward in the capital, Tokyo. Abe earlier said the government would set aside 710 million yen ($6.5m) for disaster relief. He has also proposed using 500 billion yen ($4.6bn) in reserves for the long-term recovery effort.

Abe added, "It's important to make sure the storm-hit municipalities have enough funds to rebuild their communities."