Chiba residents still struggling with power and water outages following powerful Typhoon “Faxai”, Japan

Hundreds of thousands of households near Tokyo were still without power and water on Wednesday, September 11, amid intense heat after powerful Typhoon "Faxai" ripped through the metropolitan area earlier in the week.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) said power cuts continued to affect some 430 000 households in Chiba Prefecture as of 04:00 UTC, September 11 and that its aim to fully restore services before the end of the day was unlikely to be achieved.

Shigemitsu Sakuma, an official in Ichihara city stated, "with power outages continuing into the third day, stress is building among people," as over hundreds of locals stormed at the city office to charge their phones and collect water.

Along with high temperature, water shortages also occurred in the wake of the typhoon. Over 20 000 households in Chiba were affected by the interruption.

According to reports, at least two elderly people died in the prefecture due to suspected heatstroke. Many others have been sent to the hospital due to heat exhaustion as well.

"My child was sweating so much that he had nothing left to urinate," said a mother who was evacuated in Kimitsu with her 10-month old son.

Initial reports showed that over 500 000 residents experienced power outages on Tuesday, September 10, 2019. The number has been reduced to 120 000 by Wednesday morning.

However, there are still delays in power restoration due to thunderstorms in some cities such as Kisarazu and Kimitsu.

While power has been restored in Ibaraki and Shizuoka prefectures, 4 000 other households in Kanagawa are still suffering from power disruptions.

TEPCO also said they are planning to mobilize over 2 300 workers and deploy more than 100 power source vehicles to address the concern.

Faxai hit near Chiba city on September 9 and was also recorded as one of the most violent typhoons to hit the Kanto region, eastern Japan. The storm has ravaged more than 200 homes in the prefecture and destroyed farmlands just before harvest time. About 935 000 households were left without electricity in the areas of Chiba, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, and Tokyo.

Featured image credit: Selvakumar@iamtheraijin