Flood damage in Britain to cost 'tens of millions' of pounds

Guardian (UK): The cost of repairing the damage from this weekend's flood damage is likely to run into tens of millions of pounds, insurers warned today, as forecasters predicted more rain later this week. Storms drenched parts of north-east England, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire over the weekend, claiming six lives.

The worst affected area was the town of Morpeth, in Northumberland, where 400 residents were evacuated and 1,000 properties damaged by floodwater. The environment minister John Healey met residents and emergency services staff in the town this morning. He also announced emergency funding for the councils worst affected by the floods.

He is due to meet leaders of the insurance industry later this week to discuss how it will deal with the large number of claims relating to the floods. The Association of British Insurers said initial estimates suggested damage claims would run into the "low tens of millions".

Forecasters predicted further rain to come tonight and tomorrow. The number of official flood warnings has been cut from 100 yesterday to 40 today. Most of the flood warnings are in the north-east, although there are no longer any severe flood warnings in the region….

The River Wansbeck runs through the Borough of Castle Morpeth and the Wansbeck district in the county of Northumberland, England, the site of bad flooding. This shot on a dryer day by "Black Dog," Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License (cc-by-sa-2.0).