..... The confirmed death toll climbed to 554, with 324 in Thua Thien Hue province, home of the ancient capital, Hue. Damage there was about half of the estimated $204 million in losses in seven central provinces that are home to 7 million people.
"It is expected to take Thua Thien Hue 10 years to get back to where we were a week ago," Nguyen Xuan Ly, the area's deputy governor, told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
The loss represents a huge amount for one of the poorest regions of one of world's poorest countries. Much of the same area was hit last year by both floods and the worst drought in at least half a century.
..... About half of Quang Hoa's 96 homes were destroyed, said Phan Thi Vy, 42. She and her husband, both fishermen by trade, survived on their two small boats.
When the rain started, Vy gathered her and her sister's families -- 15 people -- in the boats, tying them together.
"We sat in the boats all night, waiting for the rain to stop. If we lived, we'd live together. If we died, we'd die together," she said.
Up to two meters (seven feet) of rain poured down on the region during a three-day period last week. During one 24-hour period, the Perfume River rose by five-and-a-half meters (18 feet).
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.