A newspaper group whose journalists worked round-the-clock to cover last weekend’s floods has launched a website designed to connect offers of support with victims and pledged £10,000 to a disaster recovery fund.

The Carlisle-based CN Group has reached out to flood-hit communities on its patch with a series of initiatives in the wake of the deluge.

As well as reaching millions on social media using the #spiritofCumbria hashtag, it has launched a website called spiritofcumbria.co.uk designed to connects offers of support with flood victims.

And at least £10,000 will be donated to the Cumbria Community Foundation’s flood appeal by the family-owned group, which publishes Carlisle’s News and Star and Barrow’s North West Evening Mail.

The group is also offering a free advertising opportunity for flood-hit businesses, while its events team rallied round to make sure this week’s Taste Cumbria Christmas event went ahead in Cockermouth as scheduled.

In the aftermath of the flood, the News & Star managed to publish a 25-page special despite being hit by a power cut, and the weekly Times and Star, based in Workington, has also published a 24-page special, pictured above.

News & Star editor David Helliwell, said: “For many of our staff this was deja vu as it was the third major flood in Cumbria in the last decade. Their response was everything you would want from a team; professional and their only thought being how they could cover this fast unfolding story.

“For some of them to do that on virtually no sleep, while knowing their own homes were under threat showed great resilience.”