IZUSHI, Hyogo Prefecture--Shiro Fukumoto lost nearly everything--his house and his car-in Typhoon No. 23, the deadliest storm to hit Japan in a decade. He and his neighbors are still cleaning up, trying to make sense of their battered lives.

And like those uprooted by Saturday's earthquakes in Niigata Prefecture, they need help.

The difference is that Izushi, a town of 11,300 or so souls, is having to dig itself out away from the public eye. National attention inevitably is riveted on the tens of thousands of quake victims uprooted by the earthquakes 475 kilometers away to the northeast.

In the case of Hatsuo Wada, another resident, he expects to be billed for costly home repairs. His house, uprooted from its foundations, tilts at an alarming angle. A 2-meter deep pond now surrounds his house.

``I'm not even sure if there's anything left worth saving,'' Wada said grimly.

Izushi is a scenic sort of place that prides itself on its traditional architecture. The typhoon roared in last week just as the town was preparing for the autumn tourist season.

Even within Hyogo Prefecture, most reconstruction work has focused on Toyooka because half of the city's households were flooded out by the typhoon.

Izushi lies just southeast of Toyooka. But help has not reached people living in outlying mountainous areas.

An evacuation order was issued for all 3,600-odd households in the town as soon as the typhoon hit Oct. 20. And as of Monday, about 200 residents were still ensconced in evacuation centers, unable to return to their homes.

One of the hardest hit areas is the Torii neighborhood, which nestles on the Izushigawa river, and is about 15 minutes by car from the town's main government building.

About 600 hectares of land were flooded after the river embankment collapsed.

While much of the water has receded, the damage from flooding is plainly visible: houses stand tilted at precarious angles, cars lie upside down and power lines are snapped.

Fukumoto's house was swept away by the flood, leaving him to contemplate the possibility of pitching a tent to live on the land he had once called home.

Wada is hoping he can save his home. Pumps were brought in Monday, but the water level dropped by only 30 centimeters after a half day of work.

Despite the problems faced by people like Wada and Fukumoto, damage to communities in mountainous areas of Izushi is even worse.

The Okuyama district--6 kilometers from the center of town--was home to 24 residents in 15 households. Most were senior citizens in their 70s and 80s, the people most vulnerable when disaster strikes.

To make matters worse, Okuyama has been cut off from the outside world since Oct. 20, when the prefectural road, the only link to the town, became impassible.

A 63-year-old resident was found dead the same day. The man's home had been demolished by a landslide.

The Oct. 20 evacuation order was intended for all households in Izushi. And on Monday, five days later, 438 residents in 143 households were still in limbo.

Many took shelter at the town public health center and are desperately waiting for some return to normalcy in their lives.

An 80-year-old man was spotted Monday working alone while he tried to clear soil and sand that had accumulated in a ditch. There were no volunteers in sight.

One resident who was trying to help neighbors expressed the frustration of residents.

``It can't be helped that reconstruction for those areas with small populations is given low priority,'' he said. ``Still, it's disappointing.''(IHT/Asahi: October 27,2004) (10/27)