More flood fears as further storms forecast
More than 1,000 properties have flooded over the past week while homeowners have been warned many more are at risk.
Fourteen severe flood warnings are in place in Berkshire and Surrey while two remain in Somerset.
BBC weather forecaster Laura Gilchrist said winds could exceed 100mph around the coast of west Wales.
Gales could be the most "strongest and disruptive" of the winter so far, she added.
Troops pledged
The Met Office has issued an amber "be prepared" warning of wind on Wednesday as well as yellow "be aware" snow, wind and rain warnings.
The warning for snow covers northern and western parts of the UK - but not the South West - for most of Wednesday.
Wraysbury Primary School in Staines, Surrey, has become a "24/7 control centre" for those affected by flooding
Fire crews and members of the armed forces have been working together by the flooded River Itchen, in Berkshire
On Tuesday, PM David Cameron said money was "no object in this relief effort" but warned: "Things could get worse before they get better."
He announced measures including getting insurance companies into affected areas so "people can make their claims quickly" and grants to help homeowners build better flood defences and repair properties.
He would chair a new cabinet committee on Thursday to deal with the recovery, he announced.
And he pledged that 1,600 troops - later corrected to 600 by Downing Street - would be deployed by the end of Tuesday.
BBC Weather's Elizabeth Saary has the latest forecast
"Thousands more" would be available for tasks including filling and moving sandbags and helping the sick and the vulnerable.
The BBC's Ben Geoghegan, in Wraysbury, Berkshire, overnight, said the local primary school had been turned into "24/7 control centre" for residents affected by flooding.
Lucy Foster, who has been helping to run the operation, said the village had been "looking after itself for a long, long time and morale was getting very low, energy levels were getting low".
"Finally we've got the boys and girls that we need - we've got the Army, the police force, the fire service and getting a lot of support from them and a lot of direction from them, which is what was needed."
Our correspondent said that, with so many homes in the village evacuated, there was a real fear some of the empty properties might be looted so the Army had set up checkpoints on some roads to monitor overnight who comes and who goes.
'Unprecedented' flooding
More than 1,000 homes have been evacuated along the Thames after towns and villages including Wraysbury, Chertsey and Datchet were flooded.
In Datchet, around 1,000 homes are still without electricity after 1,700 properties were hit by a power cut on Tuesday evening.
Chief Supt Matt Twist, of Surrey Police, said the flooding in the county was "unprecedented" and warned that a further 2,500 homes were at risk.
Further evacuations have been taking place in the Staines and Egham area. Almost 6,000 properties have been flooded altogether in the past two months.
About 100 properties remain flooded on the Somerset Levels, where extra pumps are being brought in from the Netherlands, and groundwater flooding is also expected in the coming days in Hampshire, Kent and parts of London.
As well as 16 severe flood warnings, the Environment Agency has also issued about 350 less serious flood warnings and alerts, mostly in southern England and the Midlands.
The agency said it looked "increasingly likely" there would be problems along the River Severn and River Wye.
And it said groundwater levels were so high in some parts of the country that flooding was likely to persist for weeks or even months flooding was likely to persist for weeks or even months.
Source:BBC
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