She heeded all the warnings, did all the right things, and packed up early, but it still wasn't enough in the end to save Penny Newman's small business when record flooding hit Lismore.

The owner of Uptown Picture Framing was devastated about the loss of some of her equipment and the rebuilding task that lays ahead of her, but downplayed her situation compared to the thousands of people who needed to be rescued from their roofs and have lost their homes.

"I'm still going through phases," she said. "Seeing flooded houses has put it into perspective. It's quite a shock though."

Ms Newman began packing up on Friday but initially thought she was overreacting.

"It was all very confusing," Ms Newman said.

"The reports said it was going to be minor then maybe major. I looked around and noone else seemed to be packing. I thought I was overreacting and wondered, 'Am I being ridiculous?"

"By Sunday we were saying, 'Let's do it, let's do it early."

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Ms Newman was able to take her clients' artwork and some of her framing equipment to higher ground, but all of her supplies that were packed well above the previous highest flood heights would be lost.

"It is so easy to say if I had done this, if I had done that or if I'd known, but hindsight is a bitch," Ms Newman said.

"But you can't plan for that. They had no clue."

Ms Newman is one of thousands of people who will begin the arduous task of cleaning up this week and it is clear that significant support will be needed.