Floods: Storm Frank To Bring More Wind And Rain

A statement released by the office said: "Storm Frank will bring gales or severe gales to western parts of the UK from Tuesday evening into Wednesday.

"Gusts of 55-65 mph are likely quite widely, with gusts reaching 70-80 mph in exposed areas, particularly in northwest Scotland, and later Shetland.

"Rainfall associated with this system is also expected to cause some disruption with persistent, heavy rain over parts of Northern Ireland, west and southwest Scotland, spreading to northwest England and Wales through Wednesday."

Scotland's Environment Protection Agency has warned that parts of the country should prepare for flooding. Sky News weather forecaster Nazaneen Ghaffar said: "Tuesday night into Wednesday is the one to watch as an intense low moves towards Iceland, bringing very heavy rain and strong winds from the west across the UK and Ireland."

It comes as David Cameron told Sky News he will reassess Government spending after floods devastated large areas of northern England. The Prime Minister was visiting communities in York where whole streets have been submerged and said it was clear that flood defences do not "always do enough". This comes after the city's Foss Barrier was damaged by the rising waters.

He denied that there is a North-South divide in spending on flood defences and said more is spent per head of the population in the North than the South, but York resident Chris Wardle was critical of the PM's pledge.

"Every time there is heavy rain parts flood. Everything we see now is reactive. The cost of insurance alone will be tens, if not hundreds, of millions of pounds. Think how that could be better spent," he said. Technicians were said to be battling to restore telephone landline and internet services after an exchange was inundated and the mobile signal has been severely affected. Mr Wardle said: "There is no broadband, there is no mobile phone or landline. We are cut off in terms of communication. This is 2015 and it's like stepping back a hundred years." Electricity North West say they have made "significant progress" restoring power to homes throughout the day and the number of customers cut off is now down to around 600 and 700.

The Environment Agency has nine severe flood warnings in place for the North East and North West, meaning there is a danger to life.

A further 43 flood warnings, indicating that flooding is expected and immediate action should be taken, are also in force - and the majority of those are in the Midlands. Finally, there are 63 flood alerts which urge residents to "be prepared" for possible flooding. At present, there is one such alert in Anglia, 17 in the Midlands, 25 in the North East, 10 in the North West, one in the South West and nine in Wales.

Teams from insurance companies have been on the ground in the affected areas. Customers have been advised to get their claims started as soon as possible and to take photos of damaged items.