Parts of Carlisle are still uninhabitable after the floods

The Cumbria Flood Recovery Appeal was launched in the wake of the January floods, which claimed three lives, and made thousands temporarily homeless.

All but �70,000 of the cash has been allocated, with 47 awards to groups and 707 to individuals and families.

Organisers said the amount of money raised was far higher than they had originally expected.

'Ambitious target'

Andy Beeforth, director of the Cumbria Community Foundation, said: "Anyone who has been to Carlisle recently can see that many people are still not able to return to their homes.

"This continues to cause significant financial and emotional hardship.

"We have now prioritised all of our remaining funds to support individuals and families experiencing hardship."

Susan Aglionby, chair of the Appeal Funds Grants Committee, said: "When we launched the appeal we set what we thought was a very ambitious target of �500,000, and genuinely had no idea how much money we could raise.