More that 500 lives were lost. With reconstruction work now well under way, the aim of the various aid organisations is to relocate as many settlements as possible to higher ground. So instead of putting their money every year in rebuilding new houses, they will use this money for new economic activity. Fears for ancient city While people can be moved, relocation is clearly not an option for Hue's historic Forbidden City. The most recent floods virtually destroyed one building.
Local historians fear it is only a matter of time before further damage is done.
Resigned to their fate Many local people seem equally resigned when it comes to the tribulation nature brings them each year. Those living and working on boats are resisting calls for them to move onto dry land. And nobody, so far, is prepared to force them. There is one inescapable fact in all this. Water, one way or another, is at the very heart of people livelihoods in this part of Vietnam, with all the risks that that entails.