At 6am, Ric Stalenberg woke up and walked onto his front verandah at Arrow Avenue in Figtree to see a neighbour's car floating down what was now a river.
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At the northern end of the street, Byarong Creek had burst its banks and sent cascades of water flooding down the street.
It was travelling fast enough that Mr Stalenberg reckoned the car floated by at around 30km/h.
"One of the fellas, he lives about 80 metres up the road," Mr Stalenberg said.
"He had two cars parked on the street. One of them came in my driveway behind my car - it floated down the street. His other one went in next door's driveway and ended up in their backyard."
He found his car floating in the driveway and the shed he describes as his life destroyed.
"I've got a bike in there that's worth $25 grand - that was underwater," he said.
"I couldn't get in the shed to start with because of all the silt and debris up against the doors. Once I got in there it was pretty much waist deep with debris. All of my stuff as well as leaf litter and branches and God knows what else that had come in from the door being pushed in."
His house emerged unscathed, because its footings had been raised following the 1998 floods.
"I was lucky but my neighbours weren't - just about everybody else in the street had the water to go through their house," he said.
"There's a young couple in the flats next door, they walked out with the clothes they had on their back. They've lost all their electrical goods, all their furniture and carpet, clothing - everything.
"Now Arrow Avenue looks like a war zone - you can barely drive down the middle of the road and you can barely walk down on either footpath because it's piled up with furniture and white goods and carpets clothes and mud."
But there have been a few touching moments, one of which was the local Dominos outlet delivering free pizza - a gesture which made Mr Stalenberg emotional thinking about it.
"We were cleaning up on Saturday night, a friend of mine went into Domino's and said "look the whole of Arrow Avenue is shovelling their lives away - is there any chance you could help us out with 10 pizzas?'
"They said 'is 10 enough, how about 20? They gave us 20 pizzas and 20 garlic breads and said if you need more come back and get them."
Jeff Jordan also lives on Arrow Avenue and could be one of the lucky ones - he has flood insurance. Though it cost him $10,000 - which was lower than the $15-$20,000 quotes he'd been getting.
He'd gotten up early on Saturday morning because he'd heard the weather forecast and was worried something was going to happen. A neighbour went up to see if Byarong Creek was close to breaking its banks.
"By the time he'd come back to me it had burst its banks and the water just came - and it came in a hurry," Mr Jordan said.
"I was one of the very lucky ones, I only lost what stuff was in my shed. There's not much water in my house but a lot of my neighbours they've suffered terribly - they got water in their house."
He also saw the community spirit, where others rallied around to help those in need.
"Everyone's had family members that have come out en masse," he said.
"We had the fire brigade today they helped me clear out my garage. Me and my misses if we had to do it would have taken us weeks."
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
