Many UK businesses failed to properly heed the warnings of the first round of summer flooding and did not put business continuity plans in place before a second wave of heavy rain hit.

Just weeks after several parts of northern and central England were hit by serious flooding, more heavy rain has seen further devastation in other parts of the UK, with Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire particularly badly hit.

Many firms in those areas now face huge bills and look to have suffered huge data and hardware losses after they failed to initiate proper business continuity plans. Several companies in Gloucester were badly affected by the latest incident and many among them now face a struggle for survival as they attempt to recover what was lost.

Furthermore, Lyndon Bird, technical director for the Business Continuity Institute, has warned that business difficulties associated with the flooding could continue long after the flood water has finally subsided.

"Health and safety issues will mean many companies will not be able to work out of their usual offices long after the flood waters subside, requiring business-continuity provisioning for extended periods of time," he told computerweekly.com.

Latest insurance industry figures suggest the total flooding bill could top £2 billion.

Research for Connect in 2007 found that 88 per cent of UK businesses were interested in Disaster Recovery systems primarily to protect their critical applications and data