Dozens of people sheltered in an RSL overnight as an "unbelievable" deluge flooded a small rural town in central west NSW, destroying businesses with waters rising to roof height.
Vast swathes of the central west were battered by rain and powerful storms with the force of the floodwaters smashing shop windows and knocking out the back wall of the local supermarket in Molong.
"It was just unbelievable how fast the water came," Mary Mulhall told AAP from from the Molong RSL on Monday.
"It rose really quick and then it sort of went down fairly quickly as well but it just devastated on its way through."
About three-quarters of the historic town is damaged, with numerous roads ripped up and the new hockey field destroyed.
"The shop owners would be devastated because most of the shops have all gone and (the) supermarket's just gone altogether."
Waters are beginning to recede in Molong's main street, while State Emergency Service and Fire and Rescue crews begin a massive clean up.
It comes after both agencies launched into action about midnight, doorknocking homes, beginning evacuations and helping the ADF rescue people stranded on roofs.
The local IGA supermarket - the only one in the town - is completely destroyed, Mulhall said, but locals have already organised a food delivery from a food bank arriving in town on Monday afternoon.
Fire crews also rescued two people and their dog from knee-deep water inside a house, another couple from the top floor of a motel and waded through chest-high water with a police officer to reach another woman stranded in her inundated home.
At least two large shipping containers were carried through the centre of the historic town by floodwaters and are blocking the Mitchell Highway.
Cabonne Mayor Kevin Beatty, whose territory includes Molong, says the picturesque town is devastated, with shops in the main street inundated and people evacuated from homes and motels.
Premier Dominic Perrottet urged people in flood-hit areas to follow emergency warnings, saying they were not released "for the sake of it".
"It may be the case that you don't see flooding around you when those orders are put in place - that is because we expect and predict further flooding moving forward," he said.
He urged people not to drive through floodwaters, saying a significant number of rescues carried out overnight were because people tried driving on flooded roads.
"You wouldn't drive through a bushfire - don't drive in floodwaters."
The SES responded to 33 flood rescues and 462 requests for help in the 24 hours to Monday morning.
One rescue was under way for a man trapped in his car in the central-western town of Alectown who called for help just before 4am on Monday.
Police and Rural Fire Service personnel have spotted the vehicle and a helicopter has been deployed to help rescue the man.
Three new evacuation orders have been issued, including for people in low-lying areas of Eugowra, where flash-flooding is occurring as river levels continue to rise.
Major flooding is also occurring at Bathurst, west of the Blue Mountains, after the heavy falls over the Macquarie River catchment on Sunday, with a possibility that levees around the regional city could overtop on Monday afternoon.
The bureau says the immediate threat of severe thunderstorms has passed but the situation will be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.
