It would have been Cameron's first trip to the region since becoming prime minister in 2010.

Flooding first hit the largely rural southwestern county of Somerset but has now engulfed towns and villages along the swollen Thames in the southeast, encroaching toward London.

A total of 1,600 troops have been deployed, and some were already at work filling sandbags in Wraysbury, where one resident had a bitter exchange with Defense Secretary Philip Hammond.

Su Burrows, a volunteer flood warden, said the relief effort had been left to residents like her and pleaded with Hammond for military help to distribute sandbags.

"I'm sorry, I am going to get emotional. There are 100 people of this village currently working together, none of them (Environment Agency) agents, not one," she told him in the exchange on Sky News television.

Burrows said later that her blast seemed to have borne fruit, as 2,000 sandbags were sent to Wraysbury, followed soon afterward by 100 soldiers.

Hammond cautioned that government cannot "prevent the course of nature".

Insurers said overall claims had already exceeded $825 million and the bill would rise fast.

Cameron said $3.9 billion would be spent on flood defense between 2010 and 2017.

Questions:

1. What natural disaster is Britain dealing with?

2. What areas are affected?

3. Who canceled travel plans?

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