Britons Facing Floodwaters May Be Left Without Insurance

Emma Summerfield returned home on a rainy November evening in 2009 to find her vacuum cleaner afloat on a rising tide in her cellar.

Hours later, her 18th century mill-house in Cumbria, northern England, was six feet deep in water. When the water receded, it left rooms wrecked, walls destroyed, and the sewage of four nearby cottages everywhere.