'Underground temple' protects Tokyo from floods

This is Tokyo's solution to the yearly onslaught of typhoons and storms which plague Japan.

The massive surge tank - nicknamed 'the underground temple' - is the end point of a 6-kilometre-long network of tunnels that channel away storm waters.

Pump Station Chief Komiyama Takashi says the system has greatly reduced storm damage.

(SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) CHIEF OF TOKYO METROPOLITAN FLOODWAY PUMP STATION CHIEF, KOMIYAMA TAKASHI:

"The floodway is directly protecting people from floods, the results are there. The damage is down by about two thirds in terms of both the number of homes that get flooded and the areas that are impacted."

With a price tag of almost 3 billion US dollars the system doesn't come cheap, but Takashi says the U.S. should keep it in mind.

The U.S. is reeling in the wake of Hurricane Sandy which wreaked havoc across the country's East Coast.

Sandy was one of the biggest to ever hit the U.S. and left swathes of New York City submerged under several feet of floodwater.