"I understand water - and I get how pipes and culverts and creeks work," Mr Burgess said.

Sadly that knowledge wasn't much use on Saturday morning when a 1.2-metre wall of water went through his Railway Street home in East Corrimal as hundreds of millimetres of rain was dumped across the Illawarra.

It's not the first time the property, which has been in the family for the best part of 60 years, has been inundated.

But, Mr Burgess said, it was the worst.

"I know everyone's saying how bad 1998 was, but this time the water was higher here, without a doubt."

The 71-year-old, who now shares the double-storey house with his daughter and her young family, admits he's worn out after days of mopping up.

"I live downstairs and all I have that hasn't been affected is a TV," he explained. "Everything else is gone. I have no clothes left.

"Stuff that I thought was safe was on a bench and it went under."

His downstairs carpet "is gone", as is all but one piece of furniture, a timber wardrobe. The Bose 901 speakers he so longed for and finally splurged on are "cactus, too", he said.

Mr Burgess believes culverts built for the northern distributor and the associated infrastructure simply were not in a state to deal with the sheer quantity and velocity of water over the weekend.

Being aware of the situation and having lived through multiple events, he took the precaution of moving cars the night before the deluge.

Not everyone in his neighbourhood was quite so prepared. And some, unlike Mr Burgess, may not have been insured either.

"Look I don't really have a gripe with the council but, to be honest, I think they could do better," he said.

"I'd like to see them have the guts to get in and clear some vegetation from creeks and the silt that goes on top of silt in those pipes.

"A 30-tonne long reach excavator would do the trick," he insisted.