It's easy to think the people of the South Coast might be cursing their luck, reeling from bushfires to COVID to now flooding. But these people are stoic - they tell you it was worse in '78.
Simon Black has been a resident of Terara Road, Terara for nearly 30 years.
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He co-owns Driftwood Shed, a rustic wedding venue on the banks of the Shoalhaven River.
He said they received an evacuation order on Sunday night, but chose to stay.
"Living on the river, we're always prepared for floods," he said.
"We've pretty much got it under control, but you're always worried in the middle of the night when you don't know whether the peak estimates are going to be accurate."
On Monday, the Mercury asked him how these storms compared to past heavy rain events in the region.
"It's definitely up there," he said. "We have seen it higher once before, but this is the biggest in a long time."
In recent days, the Shoalhaven River has seen its worst flood since 1991.
The banks of the Shoalhaven River broke around Nowra with several streets under water, such as in Bomaderry and Terara.
SES crews from Sydney headed south to Nowra to assist with rising floodwaters from the Shoalhaven River on Monday.
SES media officer Dave Rankine said an evacuation order went out on Sunday evening, for residents in Terara and parts of Nowra, however some had decided to stay.
He said floodwaters were expected to peak around 1pm on Monday and last from four to six hours, before starting to abate.
The NSW State Emergency Service attended to more than 700 call outs and 40 flood rescues from Friday to Monday in its southern region.
Just 'a high tide' compared to great flood of '78
Valda Goodsell has lived at Moss Street, Nowra for 43 years, and witnessed many heavy rain events during that time.
"I was here in '78, and I'd say that was the worst one," she said.
"I woke up in the middle of the night, turned the front light on and I thought, 'I can't see anything, I don't know what's going on'.Read more: 22 years ago, two days of rainfall plunged Wollongong underwater
"But it was because the water was level with my front lawn here. (This is) nowhere near that yet... But I've been hearing some conflicting stuff today."
On Monday afternoon, she said she "wasn't too concerned" about the situation, but was monitoring it.
Numerous motorists attempted to travel through several water-covered parts of Moss Street on Monday.
Over at Numbaa, third generation dairy farmer Alan Henry helped his neighbour Chris Coulthart bring his cows through a flooded paddock for milking.
"It doesn't matter - rain, hail or shine, these cows have to be milked twice a day," Mr Henry said.
Mr Henry said the recent storms were "a bit of a high tide compared to '78".
"I've seen a much bigger one in '78 - that was a big one," he said. "Some of our property is the same (flooding) as this (his neighbour). (But) we've just finished building a 400-cow feed pad with a roof over it, so our cows are loving it."
Comerong Island Road resident Ray Peerless said their nine-and-a-half acre property had coped "pretty well" with the heavy rains.
"We evacuated our cars and our camper last night because we got the call from the SES," he said.
"We stayed, we were happy to stay, but we got rid of the cars just in case."
Meanwhile, lifelong Nowra resident Ray Bellamy was among a crowd of spectators near Nowra Bridge on Monday.
"This is a really big flood this year," he said.
"It's not as bad as some of the ones we've had in the past... This is as high as I've seen it for a few years.
"It's not quite as bad as '91.
"It's just a part of living here. We've got the river here, and we know sometimes we're going to get some flooding."
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