Wayne Haines admits he's never seen anything like it.
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As 2m water levels were surpassed as Mullet Creek well and truly broke its banks, the Dapto man stood watching the watery carnage unfold.
"Never seen water this high. It came up real quick," Mr Haines said.
And that would've been thanks to the overnight hammering that ended up with more than 70mm rain soaking into the ground as well as another between 9am and 3pm Thursday.
So severe was the morning deluge that Dapto and Kanahooka high schools were among the first in the Illawarra to close as parts of the Illawarra were swamped.
Dapto's SES unit has been kept busy over the past 24 hours, coordinating flood evacuations, repairing storm damage, and gathering information on locations impacted by severe rain.