Salman Haqqi, personal finance expert at money.co.uk, said: “If your home has been hit by flood damage you should speak to your insurer as soon as possible. They may need you to take emergency steps to minimise the impact of the water, until they can process your claim and sort proper repairs.  

“Take photos and videos of the damage and note down the time it happened so the insurer can tally this up with weather reports.

"When you make your claim submit ‘before’ photos and videos, if you have them, proving the state of your property before the flood hit.

“It’s the buildings insurance part of your policy that will pay out for structural damage so check your policy to make sure you have the right sort of coverage.

"If you’re a homeowner who has contents-only cover, the damaged items in the home should be covered but any damage to the property itself may not be included.

“If you're a tenant, speak to your landlord who will need to make a claim on their insurance or cover the cost. Most home insurance policies offer little in the way of cover for property outside your home, such as the garden or driveway, although it’s always worth checking your documents and speaking to your provider.”  

North West train commuters are being advised not to travel before lunch time today, due to poor weather conditions affecting the region's railways.

An amber weather warning is in place for severe weather across parts of the North West until midday today with wind and snow expected in some areas.

Due to the poor weather conditions on the railway and roads, rail operators Northern, TransPennine Express and East Midlands Railway are advising customers not to travel.

Northern said its routes covering Lancashire, Cumbria and north of Manchester have experienced severe flooding and it has issued a "Do Not Travel" alert.

It says its services running across the whole of its Northern network will be cancelled until 12pm.

Flooding is also affecting roads across the region, meaning the provision of rail replacement transport is also affected.

A spokesman for Northern said: "Anyone who needs to make essential journeys tomorrow are to allow extra time for travel and to check carefully before setting off as the situation evolves.

"As the rain continues to fall and flood waters rise, flooding is becoming more widespread and colleagues across the rail industry are working hard to deal with issues as they arise.

"Northern has been working alongside Network Rail throughout the night to prepare as many rail services as possible to resume on Thursday.

"Despite this hard work, flooding is persisting, and it has become increasingly difficult to operate a reliable service."

Chris Jackson, regional director at Northern, added: “We have worked for the last few days, in conjunction with colleagues from across the industry, to keep our services operating.

"And, where possible we have supported those services with replacement buses when the flooding meant running trains was impossible.

"Unfortunately, we have had to make the difficult decision to advise our customers that they should not travel before Thursday 12pm across many of our north west routes.

"The areas affected are those north of Manchester, Cumbria and Lancashire. Many of our services south of Manchester are still currently planned to run with some exceptions.

“The situation is constantly changing so I urge anyone who needs to make essential journeys over the next few days to allow extra time for travel and to check carefully before setting off.”

You can find the full list of Lancashire and North West services affected here.

Heavy prolonged rain has been causing river levels to rise across Lancashire, with many of the alerts below warn that there is still the potential of flooding during Thursday morning with more rain expected - these are the flood alerts in place across the county