The Environment Agency warned today that climate change is fast making the South a flood hotspot.

The warning came at the launch of Flood Action Week, a Government campaign.

More than 640,000 people already live in flood-risk areas across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Flood Action Week, which begins today and ends on Friday, aims to bring home the dangers of flooding and help people take action to protect their families and property. Ken Allison, regional flood defence manager, said: "Flood risk is now a fact of daily life across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

"Reports of flooding are now nearly twice as frequent as they were 100 years ago and climate change could mean up to a tenfold increase in flood risk over the next century.

"We can't tame nature. Floods will happen and they struck in May, June and July, when people were least expecting a deluge.

Nine out of ten of the thousand properties which were flooded were family homes. The damage was estimated at hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"But the emotional cost to victims of floods is immeasurable as you can't put a price on the loss of items like family photos and wedding albums.

"Only one person in 20 makes any kind of preparations and more than a third of people at risk don't know whether their insurance will cover them."

This week will see the Environment Agency's first national advertising campaign on TV and radio and a maildrop to 800,000 properties in flood-risk areas.

Advice can be found on the internet at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood or on the Agency's Floodline on 0845 988 1188.

The campaign coincides with the agency's introduction of new flood warning codes throughout England and Wales which come into force today. Yellow, amber and red alerts are replaced by four new codes: Flood Watch, Flood Warning, Severe Flood Warning and All Clear.