3,000 residents of Japanese city of Joso remain evacuated after floods

With a total of seven deaths confirmed, including three in neighboring Tochigi Prefecture, police and rescuers continued to search by air and on the ground for 15 people still missing. Work was under way to restore power and water service. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility serving the area, said it had crews working around the clock to fix power outages. As of Saturday night, about 11,200 homes in Joso were still without power and some 11,600 buildings in eastern parts of the city were without clean water, according to Tokyo Electric and the Ibaraki prefectural government. But it was not known how long it will take to restore water supply, according to the municipal government of Joso, a city of 65,100 located about 50 kilometers north of central Tokyo. Volunteers provided various kinds of support to evacuees at shelters, while residents of areas where waters had receded returned home to begin the cleanup. The Kinugawa River burst its banks Thursday due to heavy rain, leading to flooding over an estimated 40 square kilometers. The disaster has claimed the lives of seven people. In Tochigi Prefecture, also hit by severe floods, local officials said the body of Osamu Ogura, 68, was found Sunday morning in a car submerged in a flooded field in the town of Fujioka. Local police said he had drowned. Ogura had not been reported missing. The Ibaraki police, meanwhile, reported that the bodies of two men had been found in Joso around midday. The police are checking their identities, cause of death and whether they had been reported among those unaccounted for. Floods also ravaged other eastern areas and parts of northeastern regions. Source: Kyodo