News & Photos: UK Winter Floods: Homes Are Threatened As Flood Waters Keep Rising

Flooding in the Somerset Levels has left farmland and businesses under water and forced residents to evacuate their homes. Here we take a look at how locals have been living with the floodwaters since the start  of the year. Fourteen severe flood warnings are in place in Berkshire and Surrey, while two remain in Somerset.
Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith, has hit back at critics, saying his staff knew "100 times" more about flooding than any politician.
A minister will answer an urgent question put by Labour in the Commons on the flooding crisis later.
Speaking earlier, Lord Smith said: "I have kept my counsel up to now, but when I hear someone criticising the expertise and the professionalism of my staff in the Environment Agency, who know 100 times more about flood risk management than any politician ever does, I'm afraid I'm not going to sit idly by.
"The Environment Agency is bound by the rules that are laid down by government."
His comments came after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said ministers had been given bad advice over river dredging. Prime Minister David Cameron is visiting Portland, off the Dorset coast, to see the work of the Environment Agency.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who was in Burrowbridge in Somerset on Monday, said dredging should have been done over the last few years but added: "I don't think now is the time to point the finger of blame."
A spokeswoman for Environment Secretary Owen Paterson insisted he was "working closely" with Mr Pickles, despite reports he complained to Downing Street about the communities secretary's criticism of the Environment Agency.