Crab,
Regional Liaison Officers are still alive and well. I refer you to my comment re. Prestwick, Caernarfon and Humberside. The fact that there is little press footage doesn't mean some good work hasn't been happening! The fact that quite a bit has been going on in the dark has probably contributed to the lack of footage.
Obviously the flooding is widespread but the emergency services have had plenty of experience in the last few years and you could argue that they have a greater understanding of what a helicopter can (and can't) offer. You don't always need a hammer to crack a nut.
I guarantee that if a large scale helicopter evacuation had been necessary in the past few days and it had occurred in daylight that there would be plenty of footage of SAR helicopters.
You are perfectly entitled to your opinion about the standard of the new service but please don't demean yourself by suggesting that SAR helicopters have not responded to flooding incidents because the MCA wants to prioritise coastal coverage. That is total b*llocks but could well be taken as truth by those less informed/press trolls.