Jessica Roberts was shocked when she turned up to work on Tuesday, after an unexpected and dangerous flash flood ripped through Cootamundra on the previous night.
She estimated more than 1.5 metres of water had flowed through her childcare centre, sending furniture, toys and other resources "just floating down the creek".
"We had fridges out in the car park and the rooms were just total chaos," Ms Roberts said.
"The floor was full of water and mud. Just a total mess."
Ms Roberts is one of hundreds of residents, businesses and campers from towns across the NSW Riverina and Southern Tablelands that are continuing to count the cost of flash flooding.
Five evacuation orders were issued on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, after heavy rain lashed the area in what the State Emergency Service has called a 100-year flood event.
More than 400 homes were evacuated after the Muttuma Creek rose rapidly in Cootamundra, and it is understood more than 100 were flooded.
Towns left without power
Resident John Harriett was one of those forced to evacuate unexpectedly in the middle of the night.
"I had to wake my father up, he was in bed still," he said.
"We had to walk down the front door, down the steps and when we got down the front steps, it was chest height."
More than 50mm of rain fell in the already saturated Cootamundra area, with similar falls elsewhere.
Young, Temora, Yass, Cowra, Boorowa and Gunning were also impacted by localised, but very serious flash flooding.
Nearly 2,000 properties were left without power in Boorowa, where flooding caused a widespread Telstra outage across much of southern NSW and northern Victoria.
Cars were no match for the flood waters, with several found floating in rivers, smashed into bridges and up on creek beds.
Sue Smith owns the Telegraph Hotel in Gunning and was left devastated after a nearly a metre of water flooded the business.
"The floor coverings are all gone," she said.
"We'll come back, stronger."
Campers forced to sleep in car
A pair of students spent the day collecting their possessions from around the town, after the tent they were studying in got washed away during flash flooding.
Loren Murray is in Cootamundra completing a horse therapy course with her classmate, Bernie Pool.
They were camping near the creek and had to save what they could during the flooding.
"We have no idea where anything is so we just saw an incline and said 'head that way'," Ms Murray said.
"[We] slept in the car for a couple of hours until daylight and came down to see the damage — wet clothes, wet blanket, mud."
Community bands together for clean up
The Cootamundra Men's Shed is yet to open, after moving in only six weeks ago.
President John Ashcroft said the group's equipment, including power tools and electric saws, was likely damaged.
"There's a specialist saw we use to do specialist wood work on," he said.
"It's been on the floor, so I'm not sure if it's going to be resurrected or not."
Ivanka Znro said she fled her Adelong home after the creek started rising rapidly, ripping out trees and taking anything else in its path.
She said without the help of locals it would have taken months to clean up the mess in her yard.
"I didn't ask them, they just came over and offered it," she said. "In a small community — that is one big plus."
NSW Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said on Tuesday that the state government was in discussions with the federal government about an assistance package for those impacted by the flash flooding event.
