In a dramatic change from the early arrival of Australia's bushfire season, emergency services there have switched into flood response mode.
Wild wet weather is hammering the east coast of the country.
With a rip and a roar, the skies unleashed hell across eastern Australia.
It was a sudden and thunderous downpour.
Lightning struck a crane when torrential rain hammered Sydney.
"I got out of the car and said: you know what, I'm fine. But I'm not. I'm drenched," said one local woman.
But it was in southern New South Wales where residents became trapped and in need of rescue.
"I've never, ever seen it like this before," one woman said in a video of the rushing waters.
"The SES came around, they said: you need to get out, and helped us get out and put us in the boat," said one man, grateful to be rescued.
Twenty homes are now underwater and a holiday park was evacuated.
"It hasn't stopped really, and the lake got up at about 2am over the banks," another man said.
The storm is now moving south, with north Victoria warned about what’s on its way.
"It’s just starting. We're expecting the rainfall intensity to increase," said a representative from Victoria's State Emergency Service (SES).
"It is likely we will see a range of rural inundation but also low lying areas could be subject to potential evacuations and flooding."
Everyone is closely watching nature's next move.
