Nearly 780,000 villagers are now living in the ruins of their homes or in evacuation centres - more than the population of Leeds. The current level of assistance is nothing compared to the needs despite scores of Filipino citizens volunteering their time and personal resources, adding to the response by government, UN and non-governmental agencies.

As businesses and residents across the UK count the cost of the floods - and with unsettled weather forecast to continue for several days - the torrential rain is a timely reminder for businesses to think about what they would do to minimise the risk of their offices being flooded.

The strange behaviour of animals before earthquakes has often made it seem that nature might know of seismic movements before humans. However, scienti...