Photo/Illutration Yuko Kitazawa spends much of the day at an evacuation center in Nagano city in a chair. The artificial joints in both knees make it difficult for her to stand up. (Hikaru Uchida)

The lowest temperatures so far this autumn are adding to the hardships faced by thousands of evacuees across multiple prefectures who escaped extensive flooding brought by Typhoon No. 19 over the weekend.

Many areas heavily affected by floodwaters recorded temperatures under 10 degrees on the morning of Oct. 16.

At least 75 people across 12 prefectures in eastern Japan died in the natural disaster, while 13 others remain missing, according to figures compiled by The Asahi Shimbun.

Twenty-seven of the fatalities were in Fukushima Prefecture, while 14 were confirmed dead in both Miyagi and Kanagawa prefectures.

About 4,500 residents remain at evacuation centers in 13 prefectures, including Fukushima, Nagano and Miyagi, where many rivers flooded.

Nagano city resident Yuko Kitazawa, 73, initially thought she could return home after one night at an evacuation center set up at an elementary school gym. Her home was flooded after an embankment along the Chikumagawa river was breached.

However, she and her four family members, among 60 or so at the facility, entered their fourth day at the center on Oct. 16.

Kitazawa has difficulty walking because she has artificial joints in both knees and struggles especially at night when she wants to use the washroom. It takes her about five minutes to stand up by herself.

She is apprehensive about asking for help while everyone else is sleeping and feels it would be selfish to ask for a basic bed rather than a mat and futon she now sleeps on.

The food distributed at the center is also different from the mainly vegetable-based diet she consumes at home to help deal with her diabetes.

On the morning of Oct. 15, she visited her home with her relatives for the first time since the flooding, as the waters had receded. However, the power was still out and the toilet was unusable, with no indication of when utilities would be restored.

“Imagining what could have happened and seeing the reality were both shocking,” she said. “It’s very difficult because I have no idea what the future holds.”

A total of 938 residents remained at 29 evacuation centers in nine municipalities as of 10 a.m. on Oct. 16, according to Nagano prefectural government officials.

The colder temperatures have led some evacuees to wrap their bodies with several blankets at night or to sleep in their cars with the heater on.

At an evacuation center in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, about 80 evacuees were served hot miso soup provided by a local support organization.

The junior high school gym is lined with 32 tents for use during natural disasters, allowing families to have some privacy. However, as most of the evacuees are older people, Mito public health workers visit the tents every morning to take blood pressure.

(This article was compiled from reports by Kayoko Sekiguchi, Yoko Masuda and Kaede Sano.)