Four flood rescue teams of specially trained RSPCA officers have been out saving animals and people during Storm Desmond.
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David Cameron will visit areas hit by the devastating floods amid mounting criticism of multimillion-pound defences which failed to keep the deluge of water out of people’s homes.
“We have received a lot of calls, mainly to help people who have had to leave their animals when they have evacuated their homes”.
Sixteen severe flood warnings – signalling a danger to life – are in place across the North West and the Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for rain later this week as northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland prepare for more heavy rainfall.
Cumbria rain gauge figures showed a record amount fell in the 24 hours between Friday and Saturday evenings, with 13.4in (341mm) registered in Honister – more than a month’s worth of rain in just one day.
“Of course we will learn the lessons that we can from this unprecedented event”.
More than 2,000 homes and businesses in the county were flooded and nearly 60,000 homes in the county were left without power throughout Sunday as the floods damaged substations and caused electrical faults.
Ms Truss said 55,000 homes lost power and there have been “a number of weather-related fatalities”.
Storm Desmond hit Britain on Saturday, leaving tens of thousands of people without power, disrupting transport and closing schools and some courts.
Environment Secretary Liz Truss has made a statement on Cumbria’s floods, revealing water levels hit record levels and pledged Government support for the county.
The Government has already committed to a £2.3 billion programme of flood defences over six years.
Flood warnings may be reissued for Appleby, Carlisle, Keswick, Cockermouth and Kendal depending on level of rainfall, but rivers are not expected to return to levels seen last weekend, the agency said. “We plan to begin to restore supplies from the substation tomorrow morning and we would like to thank our customers for their patience and support during what continues to be an enormously challenging time for everyone involved”.
More than 350 military personnel were deployed in Carlisle, one of the worst-affected cities, with lifeboats and a military helicopter used to evacuate people to reception centres in places where the water reached waist height.
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Mr Cameron met emergency Enivronment Agency workers drafted in from as far away as Kent, to help deal with the floods.
