TOKYO, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Heavy rain flooded hundreds of homes in central Japan on Friday, leaving one elderly woman dead and prompting evacuation orders for more than half a million households, domestic media reported. Some people fled their home in a boat as floodwater reached close to their waist, television pictures showed, and cars sank in muddy water. A 76-year-old woman was found dead in her flooded home in Okazaki, 230 km (143 miles) west of Tokyo, while a train in the capital was hit by a landslide and derailed, Kyodo News Agency reported. No one was injured in the derailment. Authorities told 140,000 households in Okazaki and around 360,000 households in nearby Nagoya to leave their homes, national broadcaster NHK reported. Japan has suffered repeated flooding in recent months and the government weather agency warned of more rain in eastern and northern Japan on Friday and Saturday. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Rodney Joyce)
A contract worker for United States Corps of Engineers packs sand in a Hesco basket near a flood wall in New Orleans, Louisiana August 28, 2008. The baskets are used to ...
