STAFF at Hotel Norville were surprisingly cheerful as they ripped up carpets and threw out furniture from the hotel’s dining room.

“We don’t have any water, but the beer taps are still connected,” laughed duty manager Cody McGrath.

“There’s a heap of cleaning to be done,” he said. “We’ll try to get it back up as soon as possible, but it’ll be at least a couple of weeks.”

Amanda Jolly was working at the hotel during the flood. She saw the water rise over the windows before crashing into the back of the hotel, knocking over an internal wall and leaving the staff in waist-deep water, submerging stock and causing dangerous suction into the cellar below.

“I got pulled into the cellar and luckily my partner grabbed me and pulled me out. I had nightmares about it last night.”

Luckily the hotel is insured, and the staff are happily pitching in to help with the cleaning.

“I felt sorry for the boss,” Ms Jolly said.

“He was like a sailor watching his ship go down. He wouldn’t leave, he was just devastated.

“That’s why we’re all here today.

“It’s our day off for most of us and we’re all here helping and getting the place back to what it should be.”

Doors Plus

THE team at Doors Plus in Herries Street have lost everything, with their shop alongside East Creek suffering inundation from the deadly flash flood.

Joan Miladen, a salesperson and stained-glass artist at the store was there during the flood.

“There was two foot of water outside and eight inches in the shop. We tried to save what we could, but in the end we had to escape to higher ground.

An insurance assessor is due to visit today, but Ms Miladen said the owner of the business had been unable to sleep for worry and had been cleaning the shop in the middle of the night.

Dozens of plans for stained-glass windows were waterlogged and ruined, a loss Ms Miladen describes as “priceless.”

Still, she is pragmatic about the business’s losses.

“Life’s far more important, so in the end it doesn’t matter.”

Medtech Mobility Services

MEDTECH Mobility in Prescott Street were sandbagging on the day after the flood, worried the rising East Creek behind their business would inundate the shop for a second time.

Jim Edge, a technician at the business described Monday’s flood as “quite a freaky experience.”

“We were at the front of the shop and could see cars getting tossed around like corks, wheelie bins flying past.”

The flood eventually swept through the building at a height of eight inches, covering the store with sticky, silty red mud.

“We’re still to assess the damage,” Mr Edge continued, “but because of the nature of the flood we were able to lift quite a few of the valuable products to higher ground.”

”Luckily, we’re insured.”

Ken Jones Scuba

Ken Jones is well aware of the irony inherent in the flooding of his scuba shop.

“It’s quite apt, isn’t it?” he smiled.

Mr Jones and his children were in the shop when the flood waters came through, and attempted to block the water out by "sandbagging" using towels and wet suits in the store.

“We had four feet of water at the back door and eight inches through the shop. It was actually quite scary.”

The business doesn’t have flood insurance, but Mr Jones isn’t too perturbed by the prospect of stock losses.

“We managed to get all our equipment up off the floor and in the big scheme of things, we got out really lightly.”

Air Hair Studio

Tracey Carolyn Pitts’s hair salon in Russell Street was closed on Monday, but it didn’t escape the flood waters.

Ms Pitts and her team were cleaning the business as best they could with limited water and no electricity.