Roughly 660,000 people are living in refugee camps in the wake of high waters that have wrought havoc for several weeks, Pakistan's national disaster authority said in a statement. This is fewer than the 700,000 reported by the same agency just over a week ago.

About 8.9 million people have been affected by the floods, which have destroyed 1.5 million homes in 37,000 villages in Sindh province alone, according to the statement.

This marks the second straight year that Pakistan has seen deadly flooding. In August 2010, more than 20 million people were displaced and 1,700 people killed.

The latest disaster has lasted longer than a month and caused an estimated US$9.7 billion in damage to homes, roads and farms.

The United Nations warned on September 30 that humanitarian aid is running out in the hard-hit region.

This comes two weeks after the international organization and its partners launched an effort to raise US$357 million to help those most affected -- of which only US$19 million has been received, the UN said.