BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, July 26 (Reuters) - Brunei has deployed troops to help repair some 200 damaged homes in its famed floating village following the worst storm in 10 years, residents said on Thursday.

Monday's storm affected at least 1,000 people in the tiny, oil-rich sultanate on Borneo island. One resident said heavy rains continued to hit the capital Bandar Seri Begawan until late on Wednesday.

Almost all of the damaged houses were located in the densely populated Kampung Ayer, the floating village where rickety houses are perched precariously on a million stilts.

Despite the country's oil wealth, the 30,000 residents of Kampong Ayer prefer to stick with their centuries-old traditions in what some call the "Venice of the East".

A Brunei official said Monday's storm was totally unexpected.

"We didn't receive warning from our local weather radar and it hit fast," Brunei Fire Department chief Yahya Abdul Rahman said. "Things like this seldom show on the radar and it happened very quickly."

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