Chiba Downpour Death Toll Rises to 8; 465 Still Evacuated

Chiba, Aug. 15 (Jiji Press)–The death toll from this week’s record rain in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, has risen to eight, while one man is still missing, the prefectural government’s disaster response headquarters said Saturday. In the prefecture, a total of 465 people are still staying at 76 evacuation shelters, according to the prefectural headquarters. The eight victims include a woman in her 70s who was found inside a minivehicle submerged up to its roof in the city of Kashiwa and a man in his 40s who was trapped in a flooded car in an underpass in the city of Chiba. According to the Chiba city fire department, a man went missing after telling another man, in his 70s, who was calling for help from the roof of a flooded car that he would return with rescue equipment. It has also been confirmed that the downpour fully destroyed one house and partially damaged 12 others while flooding 239 houses above the floor and 220 houses below the floor. The number of affected houses could increase further as surveys have not progressed in the severely-hit cities of Ichihara and Oamishirasato. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]