A severe thunderstorm warning issued by the Bureau of Meteorology was right on the money - it warned of ‘very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds’.

Kempsey recorded 80mm of rain from 3pm on Tuesday to 9am on Wednesday. Kempsey Airport recorded 22mm in 20 minutes from 3.40pm to 4pm.

There were reports an East Kempsey resident recorded about 75mm of rain within an hour.

SES media officer Greg Gill said crews were kept busy during the storm.

“We had a call to carry out temporary repairs to a business in Belgrave St that had water leaking through the roof,” he said.

“There were three call-outs for sandbagging jobs to residential homes in Kempsey that could not cope with the amount of water.”

The SES also referred two jobs for trees blocking Crescent Head Rd to council’s after hours team. Businesses in Kempsey’s CBD were damaged.

The Kempsey-Macleay RSL Bowling and Sporting Club has been closed for a couple of days while electrical repairs are carried out.

Kempsey’s Big W store had water damage to its electrical sales department.

The storm has pushed Kempsey’s yearly rainfall total to 441.3mm, more than triple last year’s total of 127.6mm for the same period.

Isolated and scattered showers are predicted for the weekend, with the chance of thunderstorms near the coast on Saturday.

❑Some roads in the Macleay remained closed yesterday after more than 220mm of rain this month.

Roads closed included Dowlings Falls Rd, Toorooka; Seale Rd (off Crescent Head Rd); Euroka Rd; Theresa St at Euroka and Dungay Ck Causeway. Other roads may still be affected.