There are also reports of price increases in flood-hit Pakistan.
Reception centres have been set up in flood-hit towns, taking in parents, children, grandmas and dogs.
Marooned drivers taken by surprise at the rising water had to abandon their cars in flood-hit roads.
Rather touchingly, your correspondent, a Kiwi based in London, received a concerned text from a friend in flood-hit Pakistan, inquiring into his (Auckland-based) family's welfare.Perspective, please.
Speaking in flood-hit Chertsey, in Surrey, Hammond said: I think people [local communities] are happy with what's going on... Soliders and civilians are working together, filling sandbags.
It is hard to put a number to the people employed in tourism in flood-hit tourist areas, Mr. Dwivedi said, as "people are employed both formally and informally in many private enterprises".
It said Wednesday night's storms had hit Romford in Essex and Westminster in central London hardest, and it had sent emergency response vehicles to help householders in flood-hit areas.
Government pledges to spend billions of pounds on flood defences won't necessarily shield householders against rising insurance costs in flood-hit areas of the country, despite the protection they offer.
People trying to sell their properties in flood-hit parts of north-west England have begun dramatically dropping their prices amid fears that houses in some roads have become virtually unsellable.
But in the face of the crisis, residents here, as in flood-hit areas across the sprawling state of Queensland, have banded together, something that politicians and residents frequently say exemplifies the self-image of Australia -- and in particular Queensland -- as a place of rugged stoics.
