WHILE many people were sheltering inside their homes or stuck in their cars during the recent bad weather, they turned to the internet on their computers or mobile phones to find out the latest news.
The This is Exeter website has seen a massive increase in traffic since the storms began last Wednesday.
With the tragic events of Saturday evening culminating in the death of a young woman, after being hit by a fallen tree, the news spread further afield and the national media attention was on the city.
Digital journalists were out on the streets of Exeter and the surrounding towns and villages finding out the latest information and uploading video and photos.
Many web users also submitted photos and hundreds of people followed and tweeted the @thisis_exeter Twitter account to let the team know what was happening where they lived. The This is Exeter Facebook page also proved a popular way to keep up to date.
Site visits more than trebled each day last week, in comparison to four weeks ago, with a peak on Sunday, November 25 of 215,000 page views. There are now 18 galleries on the site, with dramatic images of homes and vehicles damaged by flood water.