'I felt totally useless': Gunning cleans up after 'once in a lifetime' flood

Michael Brown has lived in the small town an hour north of Canberra for 27 years and said he has never seen the town flood like it did on Monday night.

His home, which is also his studio, flooded after water began pouring in from the back of the building, leaving him in shock.

"I felt totally useless. Standing in the street, thinking I just have no idea what to do," he said.

"I walked in my kitchen, there's water pouring over the floor and of course, the building so old, it goes under the floor, which is where it is."

SES and RFS workers pumped water out of Mr Brown's house for two hours on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, but large amounts of water are still under the building.

His home is covered by insurance but the contents are not, most of which he had to throw away.

However, he said he has been helped by other people in town, who have given him a dry place to sleep and helped rip up carpets, remove soaked possessions and clean the house.

"I was amazed, really uplifted by the amount of help that arrived. I actually had to turn some people away. So that's a positive in this, it really pulled the community together," Mr Brown said.

Next to Mr Brown's home is the Merino Cafe, which had its cellar flooded, loosing about $10,000 worth of stock and four fridges and freezers.

"Within 20 minutes it was inside here real fast," said the cafe's manager Corey Plumb.

He said the cafe was luckier than others because the water went into the cellar, but "everything's covered in mud".

"As the water came in, it went straight down, but in the shed it was pretty deep."

RFS and SES workers have also been pumping water out of the cafe since Tuesday, and it is expected to remain closed until Monday.

Corey said they still don't know if the damage will be covered by insurance, or if they will have to pay for repairs themselves.

Mayor of Upper Lachlan Shire Council, which Gunning is part of, Pam Kensit said the flooding was "devastating and all of these people who live on the street are just in shock".

She said the council has already requested state and federal assistance and federal member Angus Taylor and state member Wendy Tuckerman will be visiting the town on Friday.

"The ground is so sodden, the water had nowhere to go. Because our water table is as high as it can be now, the soil moisture is just beyond belief everywhere in this whole Shire," said Mayor Kensit.

"The catchment for the river here is 100 square kilometres, it just all accumulated here and went up in nine minutes."

Councillor Lauren Woodbridge said the council is looking at ways to prevent flooding in the future, such as better drainage and infrastructure.

"It's so hard to tell how to prepare for an event like this. It's so once in a lifetime. What can you do? We're just going to manage as well as we can. The more support we get, the more funding we get, the more we can do."

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