Chiba, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)–While flooding has finally cleared one month after residential areas in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, were hit by heavy rain from Typhoon Dujuan, many people are still concerned about their future. In the Mabashi district in the town of Shisui, where 15 houses were flooded after a collapsed embankment blocked a river, floodwaters receded on Oct. 13. “I’m hesitant to repair my home until I get an assurance that I’ll be safe in the future,” said Sanae Suzuki, 56, who was clad in protective clothing while cleaning the mess left behind. Floodwaters had reached about 55 centimeters above floor level in her home. “I can’t decide whether to continue living here or relocate elsewhere,” she said. “We’re finally at the starting line,” said Yuta Hoshina, 44, whose home needs to replace tatami mats due to the flooding. Levees were breached in four locations at Inbanuma, a major lake in northern Chiba. A month since the typhoon, emergency restoration work has been completed. The surrounding farmland, however, remains covered in mud. Akihisa Suzuki, a 76-year-old resident of the city of Narita who mainly grows radishes, eggplants and asparagus, saw his farmland of about 5,000 square meters, including four greenhouses, flooded for 10 days, leaving all his crops destroyed. His greenhouses are still caked with dry mud, and all his heating appliances and tillers were broken. “I won’t be able to grow vegetables again until around next spring,” Suzuki said. Restoration work for the Anegasaki-Nagaura section on East Japan Railway Co.’s Uchibo Line is expected to take another two months to be completed, after the section was hit by landslides. As a measure to remedy the situation, the Chiba prefectural government and JR East have started lending power-assisted bicycles free of charge. Noting that it takes about 25 minutes by bicycle, much shorter than around 40 minutes on a replacement bus, Ayumi Hirano, 31, in the city of Kisarazu said, “I plan on using the bicycle when it’s nice outside, and the bus when the weather is bad.” “I just want it to be restored as soon as possible,” Hirano said of the train section. According to Chiba’s disaster response headquarters, 10 people were killed and 37 injured in the prefecture by the typhoon as of Tuesday. A total of 795 houses were either destroyed or severely damaged and 1,534 houses were flooded. Damage related to the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector exceeded 25 billion yen. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
