Ananova:

The Environment Agency's director of operations is warning that householders have to take more responsibility as climate change threatens to make such storms more likely.

Archie Robinson says the number of Severe Flood Warnings across the country, currently 25, could rise.

"There are hundreds of other warnings and as far as the South East is concerned there is a very great risk that people who were flooded two weeks ago are going to be flooded again.

"This event, however, is much wider than the one we had two weeks ago and virtually all of the central and southern parts of England and Wales are badly affected."

Mr Robinson told BBC Radio 4: "We are coping very well for the moment, I believe. At the beginning of September we introduced our flooding awareness campaign which is aimed at getting people to take more responsibility themselves for these sorts of risks happening and take precautions to know what to do when flooding alerts are raised.

"I think it makes it much easier for the emergency services if people are ready, willing and able to take action to protect their own homes and to leave when they are invited to do so."

Mr Robinson continued: "Our responsibility, and my prime concern, is to ensure lives are not put at risk in flooding and that is why we have the extensive warning systems that we have.

"Those I think are working quite well. In addition to that we are providing defensive resources, flood defences, wherever we can and money is available but we can't build defences everywhere for everybody.

"We are seeing increasing evidence that climate change may be impacting on our environment and it is simply impossible to contemplate that we could continue defending ourselves so people do have to be aware and sensitive to the environment in which they live."