Research efforts in Japan continue as flood tolls cross 200 | New

Tokyo, Japan – Japanese volunteers and rescuers cleared mud and debris in hopes of rescuing people still missing from the devastating floods that left at least 200 people dead.

Torrential rains Tens of thousands of people without water and without electricity struck central and western Japan last week and forced two million residents of 29 prefectures to flee their homes.

Research efforts, hampered by high temperatures, reached their fifth day on Thursday. "The critical 72 hours have passed," said AFP Mutsunari Imawaka, a senior official from Okayama Prefecture, one of the regions most affected by the earthquake,

. ] "But we will continue our search believing that there are still survivors."

Residents are concerned that reconstruction efforts may be prolonged.

In Hiroshima, Okayama and Ehime, the most difficult prefectures hit by torrential rains, nearly 240,000 households are still deprived of water. Associated with high temperatures, this disease causes health problems in the affected areas, many of which have an aging population.

Cases of dehydration, insomnia, and loss of appetite have been reported among survivors, particularly the elderly.

The shortage of water in local hospitals has forced some dialysis patients to be transferred to other hospitals and surgeries have been postponed.

Television footage showed that an elderly woman was trying to sleep. She was kneeling on a folding chair, her arms over her eyes to prevent light from penetrating

Lack of water prevented people from having enough fluid, according to authorities. We can not wash anything, "said a man on NHK television

With some portable fans in the evacuation centers, many survivors waved the paper fans to keep cool

"The affected areas are in desperate need of lifeguards." Junji Ide, chief director of Lohas Minami Aso Tasukeai, a volunteer NGO, told Al Jazeera of Saka in Hiroshima

: "We need all the necessary". help possible. The situation is quite serious. In Saka, he still misses 10 people

Attention #Kyoto ! There is a warning #flood ! pic.twitter.com/w5nHg4kbRW

– Girljin in Japan (@girljininjapan) July 5, 2018

"Municipalities and volunteer centers are catching up We need more resources here "

The floods also hit hard the agriculture and fisheries sectors, with damage estimated at more than 11 billion yen ($ 97.8 million).

In the prefecture Ehime, famous for its mandarins, local farms and orchards built on the slopes of the mountains were destroyed by landslides resulting from the torrential downpour.

"We will not have probably no tangerine this year, "Kichisaburo Hiraishi, a 69-year-old farmer, told Asahi Shimbun."

Volunteers help

In addition to the 75,000 police, firefighters and coastguards involved in relief operations, the municipal Local schools began to accept volunteers from all over the country to help

In Mabi district, Okayama prefecture, batteries of refrigerators, washing machines and furniture damaged by the "Mekong". Water lined the streets, residents using pipes to wash the mud from their homes.

Unable to join this hard work, Hisako Takeuchi, 73, and her husband spent the last five nights in a primary school turned into a makeshift evacuation center

. We have parents that we are not able to move big things and we desperately need help volunteers, "said Takeuchi.