.."He said: “We entered a generally flood-poor period in the 1960s, earlier in some parts of the country, later in others. This does not mean there was no flooding, just that there was much less than before the 1960s and what we are seeing now. This has lowered our own awareness of flood risk in the UK. This has made it easier to go on building on floodplains. It has also helped us to believe that we can manage flooding without too much cost, simply because there was not that much flooding to manage.”"

ed.z.: I've only experienced a "mild" flood, albeit we had to evac to the second story for a few days as the first story was knee deep. It still made quite a mess though. But what the article is pointing out and what we can see from like the Tsunami and the Burma cyclone and Katrina and all the other coastal and lowland events..humans like being close to the water, and no guarantees the water will stay where it should, so you get your problems...