Sep 16 (NHK) - Life for many people in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, has been worsening since a typhoon caused massive power outages there a week ago.
Typhoon Faxai swept through the greater Tokyo area from September 8 through September 9, leaving up to 640,000 homes in the prefecture without power.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will take until September 27 to restore power in some 20 municipalities.
Roughly 20,000 houses in the prefecture were without tap water as of Sunday. Public announcement systems, as well as phone and online communications, also remain unavailable in some areas.
Local officials began health checkups for elderly residents who have been living without electricity.
They are struggling to fully understand how power outages have affected people's lives as the blackout has occurred across most of the prefecture.
Authorities are also facing the challenge of determining what kinds of assistance they should offer in the long term.
The patience of people is being stretched to the limit in some areas, including the Kawaguchi district in Minamiboso City. The typhoon has damaged nearly 90 percent of the homes in the district.
The district has already run out of an emergency stockpile of water. About 60 percent of its population are elderly, and many of them have difficulty securing relief supplies from outside their communities.
Some residents say they have asked city authorities for supplies and volunteer workers, but say they have not received either.
