A UK minister has admitted the Government will not be able to protect every house from flooding after the country was hit by a second major storm within a week.
Yet new Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News that the Government had not been caught off guard by the floods caused by Storm Dennis.
Speaking during a visit to York to discuss tackling flooding, Eustice said that there was always more that could be done.
Eustice added: "We've done a huge amount - we can't do anything about these extreme weather events but the steps we've taken have meant the impact of those weather events have affected fewer properties."
He blamed the "nature of climate change" for the scale of the damage, and said: "There is always more that can be done.
"We'll never be able to protect every single household just because of the nature of climate change and the fact that these weather events are becoming more extreme, but we've done everything that we can do with a significant sum of money, and there's more to come."
Eustice has historically voted against measures to prevent climate change, and has not supported financial incentives to boost low carbon energy production.
The Environment Secretary's comments come after the country took a battering of heavy rain and strong winds as Storm Dennis lashed the UK, just a week after Storm Ciara.
Parts of the UK were buffeted with winds of more than 90mph, while more than a month's worth of rain fell in 48 hours in places.
Roads and railways were flooded on Sunday after torrential downpours and high winds caused.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence deployed Army personnel to assist people in West Yorkshire areas badly hit by flooding during the previous weekend's Storm Ciara.
The situation was said to be "life-threatening" in South Wales, where the Met Office issued a red warning due to heavy rainfall and flooding risk.
EA's flood and coastal risk management executive director John Curtin said that there had been a record number of flood warnings and alerts in force.
The EA said on Sunday that there had been more than 600 flood warnings and flood alerts in place across England - covering an area from Scotland's River Tweed to the rivers of west Cornwall.
But the Government was criticised for its response, including a Tory MP telling it to "pull its finger out".
Conservative MP Philip Davies told the Daily Telegraph on Monday that "precious little" had been done since the floods in 2015 to prevent his constituents in Shipley, West Yorkshre, being flooded again during the two most recent storms.
He added: "My constituents who were flooded were the same people who were flooded on Boxing Day 2015.
"It's not as if there hasn't been enough time to do something. The Government needs to pull its finger out.
"What has been done to stop it happening again? Precious little."
The Met Office said that winds of more than 80mph were recorded across parts of the country, with the highest measuring 91mph in Aberdaron in North Wales on Saturday.
A total of 156.2mm of rain fell at Crai Reservoir in Powys in the 48 hours from Friday to Sunday morning, it added.
The average monthly rainfall for February in Wales is 111.1mm, the Met Office added.
A yellow weather warning for wind is in place until 11am on Monday.
Severe flood warnings were also still in place for the rivers Lymn and Steeping in Lincolnshire, as well as the River Teme in parts of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire.
Pictures on social media show the Taff bursting its banks and flooding parts of Pontypridd, while rescue workers were using boats to get families to safety after further flooding in nearby Nantgarw.
South Wales Police said it had declared a major incident due to the flooding and severe weather.
A man in his 60s died after being pulled from the River Tawe ear Trebanos Rugby Club, despite paramedics battling to save his life - police said he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dyfed-Powys Police said that the man had been seen entering the River Tawe near Gorsedd Park in Ystradgynlais area, in South Wales, at about 10am on Sunday morning.
The force said the death was not being treated as suspicious or being linked to the bad weather.
A fire crew on its way to an emergency got stuck in the floods and had to be rescued.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service told the PA news agency that a water rescue unit had been rushing to a report of two people being swept away in the River Teme when it got submerged in flood water.
A spokesman said the crew were safe and had been pulled to safety but the vehicle was still to be recovered.
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