Agencies and community pitch in for Gunning flood recovery effort

As The Telegraph Hotel barman, Bill Dowling, tells it, they were "absolutely brilliant" in the major clean-up following flash flooding in Yass Street on Tuesday night.

"They were just going up the street and doing one building at a time. The 'firies' and SES were also there pumping out water and helping get damaged items out."

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A steady stream of trucks took the sodden carpet, furniture and other materials to the Gunning tip.

The night before, pub licensees David and Sue Smith were working in the hotel when Sue noticed water coming in the back door. Five minutes after telling her husband, it was pouring into the pub. Soon it was 30cm high and rose knee-deep to destroy carpet, some shelving and furniture.

Mr Dowling said the snooker room was flooded throughout and food prepared for a Melbourne Cup function the following day was destroyed.

"We had 60mm from 6pm to 7pm," Mr Dowling said.

"It also hit the Merino Cafe, the mechanics shop, CRT and the motel, which is a mess. Everything has been taken to the tip."

The light of day revealed the extent of damage. Community volunteers pitched in to remove all cool room contents. All damaged carpet was ripped up and later, three fireplaces were lit to help dry out the premises.

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A phone outage complicated matters and business owners feared turning power back on due to wet electricity boxes.

KFC in Goulburn kept some of the volunteers fed with donated food. The volunteers also helped out at nearby businesses, including the service station's mini-mart, which lost significant stock.

Mr Dowling, who has worked at the hotel for eight years, had a day off on Monday. The Smiths have held the pub licence for 13 years and haven't seen anything like Monday's deluge.

"It's the first time it's happened as long as I can remember but (someone) told me it occurred back in 1959 when a lady had to be taken out in a boat," Mr Dowling said.

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No date has set for a re-opening. But Mr Dowling said the Smiths hoped it would be soon because they wanted to be there for the community.

Meantime, Southern Tablelands RFS operational officer Mitchell Butler said crews were kept busy with 33 jobs during the heavy rain.

Forty personnel in 15 trucks and other support vehicles hit the ground, dealing with everything from flooding to fallen trees and rescues.

The Gunning unit was first on scene in town and went to work sandbagging and working with other agencies and the community.

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Mr Butler said the water was one metre high in the main street.

The next day, a strike team, vehicles and a bulk water tanker converged on the town to help the recovery and assess damage.

"Everyone did a great job and it was great to see the agencies working together with the community," Mr Butler said.

But he expressed frustration at the number of flood rescues around the area after people drove into inundated crossings.

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