And it kept falling. The rain gauges filled up - 375 millimetres was the official reading though some suburban gauges up north were pushing 400 millimetres.

And there was nowhere really for all that rain to go; except through people's houses.

Water, at thigh level in some places, washed under front doors and through neighbourhood streets, bringing mud and debris with it.

The wild weather knocked down fences, pushed parked cars off bridges, flipped them over and left them resting on their sides up against houses, washed others out into the surf, closed roads and put most of the northern suburbs under water.

Two people died in the storms. Police said witnesses saw John Thompson, 71, try and drive through floodwaters blocking Brompton St in Bellambi, when his car stalled.

Witnesses waded through the water to try and rescue him but were pushed back by the current - the same current that swept the car downstream.

Police later found Mr Thompson's body in the passenger seat of the car.

Unanderra's Joanne Doyle was heading to Sydney for a job interview on Monday, when the rain stopped the trains.

Instead, she sought refuge at the Bulli Family Hotel (now the Heritage Hotel). She was sitting on the balcony having a drink with a few other people at 11.30pm, when she lost her balance and plummeted seven metres to the ground.

She had reached out and grabbed nearby Cameron Sprott as she fell, pulling him over the edge. Mr Sprott suffered only minor injuries.

Emergency services saved plenty of other people caught out in the deluge as suburban streets turned into oceans and seas, sometimes having to piggyback residents to safety.

In one iconic image, Senior Constable Gary Storey carried Ashlie Hawkes through the thigh-deep waters. He had heard the screams of Ashlie and brother Aaron trapped on the roof of their Pioneer Road units.

"I was so frightened," Aaron said after the rescue. "My daddy was in the water hanging on. We thought we were going to die."

Storey, a Police Rescue squad member, met Ashlie a year later and was modest about his efforts.

"You could have gone anywhere and done the same thing," he said. "There were just people screaming to be helped."

Despite the rain, some had chosen to leave by driving up Bulli Pass, only to end up trapped by rocks and branches washed down the cliffside by the water.

Drivers had to abandon their cars on the pass and make a dash for safety; the right choice as a huge section of the pass soon gave way, covering their vehicles.

Some had never left their homes; an 86-year-old woman had been marooned in her North Wollongong home for two days after the storm, too terrified to open the door and let anyone help.

An 84-year-old man in the same suburb stayed home and slept on his mattress, surrounded by floodwaters.

Nada Srbinovska had to swim away from her Arrow Avenue home with her 19-year-old daughter Vanetta and 10-year-old son Nicholas.

In the darkness, they were swept in different directions, each spending hours believing the others to be dead.

Ms Srbinovksa had made it to the roof of a block of flats, Nicholas was pulled to safety by a man with a crowbar at a nearby shop while McDonald's staff rescued Vanetta after she was washed into the back wall of the fast food store.

As the rains eased, others were able to start the clean-up and try to salvage what was left.

In many cases there wasn't much worth keeping, in the days after the storms, mud-splattered household goods like fridges, washing machines, cupboards, closets and lounges were stacked up on nature strips all over Wollongong.

Homes and streets had been inundated with mud and water, yards destroyed, roofs collapsed - some houses were unlivable.

But, unbelievably, more despair was to come, thanks to some hard-hearted insurance companies. Looking to avoid a payout, the likes of NRMA, GIO VACC and QBE decided the damage to their customers' homes was caused by flood and not storm - therefore they weren't covered.

It was a devastating blow for many who were already on their knees. One of those was Ms Srbinovksa, who had NRMA knock back her $65,000 claim.

There were odd situations where one resident in Balgownie had their claim rejected because the insurer claimed it was flood damage, while their next-door neighbour - affected by the very same water - got a payout when their insurer decided it was stormwater.

Or a homeowner at Mt Ousley getting a payout for stormwater damage, but a tenant who was living in that house had their contents claim rejected.

Sometimes the claims were rejected before they were even lodged; a worried policyholder calling the insurance company was enough to see the company fire off a letter denying liability.

But if the insurance companies thought they were going to get away with it, they were wrong. The residents banded together to form the Storm Water Action Group (SWAG).

"It was a time of drive-by assessments," said group spokesman Richard Nederkoom. "Assessors claim they went onto premises to get information but it appears in a lot of cases they did it without the homeowner being aware of it. We've had reports of hydrologists making their reports after talking to children."

Solicitor Mark McDonald from local firm Maguire and Mclnerney also came on board to fight the insurers. In October, he helped people lodge as many as 250 claims with the General Insurance Claims Review Panel.

At the end of that month SWAG protesters stormed into the NRMA annual general meeting - and a day later the insurer caved in. Days after that GIO also decided to pay all claims.

The likes of QBE MACC and Suncorp wouldn't come to the party. Peter and Coral Roil from the northern Illawarra suburb of Towadgi had been fighting with VACC for almost a year, before capitulating and accepting a portion of their $50,000 contents claim after water a metre-high washed through their home.

"We're not getting the full monty, but we're sick of fighting," Mr Roil said. "I offered them a chance for a 'serious' settlement and they offered to pay for the entire cost of our contents to the water level of 0.5 metres."

Six months later, Julie and Tony Pados were still fighting QBE to pay up; the insurer later admitted it was holding up payment on a number of claims to keeping the issue of flooding on the agenda to get governments to do something about it.

"He put it fairly and squarely on the table that these people are just bait," Mr McDonald said of the meeting with QBE CEO Raymond Jones. "QBE has been absolutely stonewalling and there has been no progress."

A year later, it was another QBE customer who was the only people on their street to remain unpaid. While every other insured home owner on Cassian Street, Keiraville, had been paid out - but Denis and Martha Moraitis were still waiting.

"We drew the short straw by having our insurance with QBE," Mr Moraitis said. "Having insurance was a comfort to us on the night but QBE hasn't budged, even when the other insurers changed their mind and paid up."