Piles of soaked tatami, furniture and other household items dot residential areas of Tokai, while dead fish, dogs and other pets lie on streets covered in mud left by the record downpours and heavy flooding that hit the region earlier this week. With about only 3,700 people still living in evacuation shelters -- a fraction of the 400,000 forced out of their homes at the storm's peak -- the area is slowly recovering from its worst three days of weather in living memory.
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| Debris from floods in the Tokai region is piled on the streets of Nishibiwajima, Aichi Prefecture. |
Nine people were killed and 74,000 households flooded due to the storm.
The office of Masaki Sato, 57, in the Ashihara district of Nagoya's Nishi Ward, was flooded with muddy water when a river about 50 meters away breached its embankment.
"Computers in the office were ruined by the mud. I hope I can find floppy disks containing all my business information," said Sato, who was raking mud from the office floor.