Monitoring desk
\nTOKYO
\nJapan\u2019s government said Wednesday it would set aside millions of dollars to help areas devastated by Typhoon Hagibis, which killed more than 70 people across the country.
\nHagibis slammed into Japan on Saturday, unleashing fierce winds and unprecedented rain that triggered landslides and caused dozens of rivers to burst their banks.
\nBy midday Wednesday, the government put the toll at 74, with more a dozen people still missing.
\nPrime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government would offer 710 million yen ($6.5 million) to help areas affected by the storm.
\nThe money will come from some a 500 billion yen emergency reserve, he said. Tokyo will also fast-track the disbursement of subsidies to more than 300 disaster-hit municipalities.
\n\u201cThe government will stand united to tackle the issue of supporting victims, so that they will be able to return to normal life as quickly as possible,\u201d Abe said. As of Wednesday morning, more than 10,000 households were still suffering from electricity blackouts, while more than 110,000 households are without running water, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
\n\u201cToday, too, rescue workers are making their utmost efforts in search and rescue work,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cDue to the heavy rains we\u2019ve experienced, the level of water is rising in rivers and there are spots where the ground is getting muddy.\u201d
\n\u201cWe call on people to keep vigilant about landslides and floods,\u201d he added.
\nTelevision footage showed devastated residents returning to homes filled with brown mud, and rescuers searching a hillside for a family missing after a landslide.
\nThe country\u2019s northeast was particularly hard hit by the typhoon — with a death toll of 26 in Fukushima prefecture, the highest among the 36 of Japan\u2019s 47 prefectures that were affected.
\nCollapsed embankments were observed at around 80 locations along 55 rivers in the country, the infrastructure ministry said, as it continues to asses the extent of the damage.
\nLocal trains have gradually resumed operation but some Shinkansen bullet trains were still suspended in the hard-hit Nagano and Niigata regions in central Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monitoring desk TOKYO Japan\u2019s government said Wednesday it would set aside millions of dollars to help areas devastated by Typhoon Hagibis, which killed more than 70 people across the country. Hagibis slammed into Japan on Saturday, unleashing fierce winds and unprecedented rain that triggered landslides and caused dozens of rivers to burst their banks. By […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n