Susan Jarnason's neighbours barely knew who she was - but it didn't stop them helping her clean up after Saturday's rain.
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Ms Jarnason had only moved into her Doris Avenue home in Woonona less than a month ago.
"The neighbours in this block have been absolutely phenomenal," Ms Jarnason said.
"They were here all day yesterday comforting, cleaning, moving dirt, feeding us, watering us - everything that could possibly done.
"We're new, we just moved in but they were the best neighbours I've ever had."
She also praised the State Emergency Services and police, who came to check up on her.
Ms Jarnason said she woke up at 3.30am on Saturday to the sound of very heavy rain.
"I went downstairs to see there was a metre and a half to two meters of water coming into the bottom level of the house covering everything," she said.
"There were quite loud bangs of the fence coming down.
"The garage was full of water. The water was coming down the street and we had to wade out in water around our knees in order to get into our car to get up the road to where there was less water."
The State Emergency Service said Woonona was one of the suburb's most heavily hit by the storm.
It turned the suburb's CBD into a river, with business owners saying it was clear around 4am but two hours later the water was coursing down the street and into shops.
One of those was Penny Wilson's flower shop - she got a call from another business around 6am to tell her it had flooded.
"I found a lot of water in my shop and a lot of mud," Ms Wilson said.
"A lot of mud on the street - everyone was out the front cleaning up their own shops.
"I had water and mud in my shop pretty much right through the front and the back."
Luckily, she had concrete flooring and not carpet, so after a weekend of cleaning up, she will be able to open the doors on Monday morning - the flowers in the cool room were undamaged.
Ms Wilson said she was also struck by the sense of community spirit as locals came down to help the clean up effort.
"In the main street of Woonona people were walking past - 'can I help', 'can I bring something down, 'can I bring a mop'," she said.
"Everyone was pitching in to help. It was a bit of a community thing people were trying to help when they could.
"A coffee truck came around and he offered the people who were cleaning up free coffee and later in the night when I got home I read on Facebook that the Woonona kebab van were offering kebabs for those people who were cleaning up and for homeowners as well."