158 Temporary Housing Units Eyed in Rain-Hit Ehime Pref., 200 in Kurashiki

July 24, 2018

Matsuyama/Okayama- Work has started to construct 158 temporary housing units in Ehime Prefecture for people whose houses were destroyed or heavily damaged by floods or landslides caused by torrential rain that mainly hit western Japan earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the prefectural government of Okayama plans to build 200 temporary housing units in the city of Kurashiki, which was also hit hard by the disaster.

In Ehime, 60 units will be built at two locations in the city of Ozu and 98 at two sites in the city of Seiyo, prefectural government officials said. The wooden houses will likely be completed in late August, they said.

People moving into the temporary units will be allowed to live in the houses for up to two years in principle. Rents will be covered by the prefectural government, while utility costs will be borne by residents.

Kimio Yano, 66, a restaurant owner in Seiyo, recently moved to an evacuation center with his mother, who is nearly 90 years old, from the house of a relative. His house was flooded and became unlivable due to the rain disaster.

Yano applied for one of the planned temporary housing units. He said that it remains to be seen when he can reopen his restaurant. "I don't feel calm now," Yano said, noting that he has a lot to do, including procedures to obtain a disaster victim certificate and demolish his damaged house.

"I'll think about things I should do over time after I move into the temporary housing," he said.

Elsewhere in Ehime, the city of Uwajima, also heavily damaged by the rain disaster, is talking with the prefectural government for the construction of temporary housing there.

The 200 housing units in Kurashiki will be constructed in its Mabi district, where wide areas were flooded, and at four other locations in nearby districts.

The Okayama prefectural government plans to launch construction work in August. "We hope to allow residents to move into the housing in September at the earliest," a prefectural official said.

More such housing will be constructed if needed.

As of Monday, more than 2,300 Kurashiki citizens, mainly from the Mabi district, had been evacuated, according to the city's disaster response headquarters.

The Okayama prefectural government has earmarked funds for 1,000 temporary housing units under a recently compiled supplementary budget.

"We've picked spacious sites for the temporary housing so that people who will move into the housing can maintain their communities to a certain extent," Kurashiki Mayor Kaori Ito said at a press conference on Monday. "I hope that the temporary housing will make residents feel ease, even if only slightly," she added.

Ito said that the city will consider creating spaces enabling residents of the temporary housing to interact with one another and offering a bus service for them. Jiji Press