KYODO NEWS - Oct 17, 2019 - 21:15 | All, Japan

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday the government will take steps under a special law to fully support people living in areas affected by Typhoon Hagibis.

The government will designate the typhoon, which flooded vast areas of Japan with record rainfall and disrupted lifelines, as an extraordinary disaster, a move that will trigger subsidies for recovery efforts, and extend exceptions in administrative procedures, such as extending the deadline for driver's license renewal.

"The government will do everything it can to help all people affected by the disaster live their lives without worries once again," Abe told reporters in Miyagi, one of the hardest-hit prefectures in northeastern Japan.

As rescue and relief efforts continued, the land ministry confirmed Thursday the typhoon had flooded at least 25,000 hectares on the country's main island of Honshu.

The deadly typhoon hit farmers hard across the country, with damage to agricultural products and facilities estimated at 24.92 billion yen ($230 million) as of Thursday, according to the farm ministry.

(Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter Oct. 15, 2019, shows the characters for "water and food" written on muddy ground in Marumori, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan.)

(A Self-Defense Forces member checks damage at an apple orchard in Nagano, central Japan, on Oct. 15, 2019.)

Typhoon Hagibis caused rivers to overflow and left more than 100 embankments collapsed. As a result, as of Thursday afternoon, more than 39,000 homes were inundated, the figure more than doubling from Wednesday's count, and some 2,200 homes were partially or completely destroyed, according to the internal affairs ministry.

The total flooded area surpassed the 18,500 hectares affected after last year's torrential rain disaster in western Japan, which killed more than 200 people.

The number of deaths, large-scale housing collapses and extensive disruptions to electricity, water and gas supplies are among the factors the government takes into consideration in determining the severity of a disaster.

It will be the sixth disaster in Japan to be designated as an extraordinary disaster following such calamities as the 1995 earthquake that hit Kobe and its surrounding region and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the northeastern region of Tohoku.

The weather agency warned of more rain from Friday through Saturday in northeastern and eastern Japan after the typhoon claimed the lives of 77 and left about a dozen missing.

Temperatures dropped to the season's lows in hard-hit northeastern Japan, leaving many evacuees weary after sleeping on thin mats at shelters for days.

"It was cold. I couldn't sleep well as I also worried whether I can return home," said 56-year-old Tomoko Yamaki at an evacuation center in the town of Marumori in Miyagi Prefecture, which logged 4.6 C in the morning.

As of 2 p.m., 4,063 people were taking shelter at evacuation centers in 11 of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Abe visited Fukushima Prefecture, where 27 deaths have been confirmed, the highest among the country's provinces, and met with the affected at an evacuation center in Koriyama earlier on Thursday.

Abe's government has decided to disburse about 710 million yen ($6.5 million) from 500 billion yen in reserves set aside under the fiscal 2019 budget. It is also considering compiling an extra budget to finance reconstruction, according to officials.

While 31,000 members of the Self-Defense Forces have been mobilized, the Defense Ministry has decided to dispatch an additional 200 reserve members as the affected areas need more hands in distributing supplies, providing baths and other support for an extensive period.

It was the first summoning of reserve members since 2011, when northeastern Japan was hit by the massive earthquake and tsunami.

Related coverage:

Cold snap, more rain raise fears in typhoon-hit Japan

Typhoon-hit areas struggle in aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis