More than 43,000 homes were left without power as further severe flood warnings have been put in place.
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Around 40 schools remained closed in Cumbria, while the disruption led to the cancellation of appointments and routine business across NHS hospitals and services.
Dame Julia said it is too early to determine a definitive cause for Storm Desmond, but added that such rainfall is seven times more likely than it would have been in a world without human-created greenhouses gases.
Inspector Ben Strangwood, who has co-ordinated the RSPCA’s flood response, said: “It has been a huge challenge as the flooding is so widespread across a large geographical area”.
Setting out the council tax relief, Mr Clark said the Government was “determined to do all we can to help” people in Cumbria and Lancashire hit by the floods.
Engineers will begin restoring power to 42,000 homes and businesses in Lancaster, Morecambe and Carnforth from 8am, after “unforeseen flood damage” at a substation in Lancaster caused them to lose supply on Monday.
The devastation has resulted in criticism of the government after multimillion-pound defences built following floods in Cumbria in 2005 failed to keep the deluge out from people’s homes.
Mrs Truss defended the Government’s preparedness, saying it was investing in flood defences and “there will be unexpected scenarios, there always are”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “Our current assessment is indeed that this was record-breaking if you go back through all the digitised data we hold, way back to the 19th century”.
Virgin Trains reopened West Coast Main Line rail services through Cumbria and military engineers have been assisting highways authorities in getting roads back into use.
One death was reported in London, after an elderly man was blown into the path of a bus, and a body was also found in a search of the River Kent in Cumbria, after reports that an elderly man had fallen into the water.
“The events of the last 24 to 48 hours demonstrate that there are sometimes levels of flooding that it’s hard to protect against”, he said.
Britain’s Environment Agency said more than 80 flood warnings were in place on Monday, 46 of which were severe.
“But this has proved to be yet another false promise”.
That’s more than the monthly average and nearly certainly a record, and when that happened the rivers rose to such a level that in some parts of Cumbria they overtopped our flood [defenses].
Making a statement in the House of Commons, Environment Secretary Liz Truss praised the work of the emergency crews, with some travelling from south Wales, Somerset and Lincolnshire to help.
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“For the first time ever we’ve set out a 6 year flood defence building programme which is fully funded…” A man rides his bike down through flood water in Eldridge Street, Carlisle.
