Tokyo: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the Japanese government will decide at its Wednesday session to allocate 710 million yen (around USD 6.6 million) to support the areas affected by the devastating Typhoon Hagibis.
“We want citizens to resume normal life as soon as possible very much. We will do everything possible to ensure that administrations of the affected areas do not worry about finance and can focus on recovery,” Abe said at a meeting of the parliament’s budget committee, reported Sputnik.
As per the latest reports, around 74 people have lost their lives due to the typhoon. None of the missing persons have been located. However, search and rescue operations in the affected areas are underway.
Moreover, thousands of homes remain submerged in water and with no electricity. Fukushima, Miyagi, Kanagawa, Tochigi, Saitama, Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures are among the worst affected.
As per Japan’s Cabinet Office, around 5,500 people remain housed in shelters and more than 2,30,000 people had been evacuated ahead of the storm.
While the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said that heavy rain caused 146 landslides in Japan, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said in a release that over 9,962 houses had been flooded across the country.
The storm made landfall on Saturday evening (local time) on the Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.