Eurobodalla SES deputy unit controller Jane Knuckey said they had to open their operations centre on Friday and call in all their members to deal with the requests for help.

“We were flat out, there were people going everywhere,” she said. “We ended up having about 14 jobs and we were expecting the river to come up.”

The jobs came from throughout the shire - from Maloneys Beach, where there was a blocked gutter and water in a house, down to Wallaga Lake.

Ms Knuckey said one of the major incidents was people trapped in a car in floodwaters on Potato Point Rd, near Bodalla.

Rural Fire Service acting operations officer Ian Stroud said they also attended the scene at about 4pm on Friday.

“There was a motor vehicle caught in the causeway on the road,” he said.

“They’d just gone in to cross it a little hard and the water flooded the motor.

“It was all systems go when we got the call, and when we got there it was just a matter of towing the car out.”

He said the occupants escaped without injury.

The RFS also responded to a few minor traffic accidents on the Princes Highway, including an incident between a car and a truck at Mogo where no one was injured.

“It just caused traffic delays,” he said. “It’s something you’ll always see with wet conditions. With all the rain there, the visibility was bad.”

Mr Stroud said the RFS also dealt with a number of fallen trees on the road.

Among all the chaos on Friday, Ms Knuckey said the SES was also called out to a house that had been struck by lightning in Tuross Head.

“The resident said she’d heard this almighty bang. It dislodged the tiles on top of the house.”

The damage to the tiles caused the rain to run down the walls of the house, flooding it.

Nine out of the 14 incidents the SES were called out to were blocked gutters, which caused houses to flood.

One - at Active Computer Technologies in North St, Batemans Bay, had blocked gutters from overgrown trees at the back, which caused the roof to fill with water and collapse.

The shop’s owner, Matthew Inwards, said he was called in about midnight after security guards from the Village Centre across the road noticed the roof on the balcony upstairs cave-in.

The SES helped propup the roof to temporarily fix the situation.

Ms Knuckey said Friday’s incidents proved how cleaning out gutters not only prevents fire hazards, but flood hazards as well.