British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that he was preparing to visit badly affected areas Monday.
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Storm Desmond dumped record levels of rain on northern England and Scotland over the weekend.
In Carlisle, Cumbria’s administrative centre, hundreds of homes were without electricity and troops were helping emergency workers to evacuate residents from flooded streets.
While local leaders demanded an investigation, Floods Minister Rory Stewart defended the government, arguing that defenses had slowed down the water to allow more time for evacuations.
She added: “Even in the cases where some of the defences were overtopped…it delayed the flood so it gave us an opportunity to evacuate and protect people and reduce the impact of those floods”.
Sir James Bevan, the new chief executive of the Environment Agency, promised he will review his organisation’s response to the floods.
Some hospitals, schools and other public buildings were closed, while railway lines and roads were blocked by floods and landslides.
The weekend saw a new record created for the largest amount of rain in a 24-hour period, with 341.4mm recorded at Honister Pass in Cumbria.
Power has been restored to all homes in North Wales after heavy rain and wind left 700 without power on Saturday.
Some 2,685 properties in Cumbria remain without power, the force said.
A fundraising campaign set up on Sunday for people affected by the floods had raised more than a quarter of a million pounds by Monday morning.
In London, a 90-year-old man died when he was apparently blown into the side of a bus by a gust of wind Saturday.
According to the Met Office, “angry” weather conditions are on the way with two inches of rain forecast to land on areas already suffering the legacy of Storm Desmond.
The current floods are said to be the worst in the U.K.in 10 years as some areas received record high rainfalls.
A spokesman said the rescue had to be called off for safety reasons because the strength of the flood water was so strong.
He also noted Chancellor George Osborne had protected a £2.3 billion investment in flood defences over five to six years.
Cumbria Police said up to 6,425 properties may have been flooded but the most likely scenario was that 4,881 had been affected.
She said there would be: “Around 100mm in the North West, which will lead to further flooding”.
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Shadow environment secretary Kerry McCarthy said: ” The first priority of course is to make sure people are safe, and get them back in their homes, but people are rightly fearful that this will happen again. “The water we have seen in the street would have been a lot higher if we had not spent money on these defences”.
