Bedwells Feed Barn's relief after flood clean-up

As over 80 millimetres of rain fell in the 24 hours to 9am Monday morning, Bedwells' entire store was flooded, as well as its bagging-up shed.

While the water had thankfully been cleared by Monday afternoon, the damage had been done, with bags of feed worth over $50,000 ruined after being exposed to the water.

Three days on from the flooding, Bedwells owner Anthony Frisby told the Western Advocate it could've been a lot worse.

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"We're surprised because we thought it might've dropped a lot of mud and muck," he said.

"It filtered out really well. It was a bit dirty but nothing too hard to clean.

"It could've been a hell of a lot worse. I don't know if it was because it filtered through the grass. I'm not sure how it worked, but it worked in our favour."

Mr Frisby said he was first notified of the flooding by one of the neighbouring businesses.

"Roger Lumax called us and told me there's water in here. I rang the staff to get in here because I got caught at the soccer fields and I couldn't get in," he said.

"I didn't get in until 8.30am, but there was nothing you could do. I just tried to jam hay bales at the entrance to try and stop it rising in the shop.

"We really couldn't do anything so we went to breakfast, came back about 40 minutes later. All the water in the shop had gone but it was still flowing like a river between the two sheds.

"We just got in here and swept all the water down the drains and tidy it up. I reckon by lunch time it had stopped flowing out the back, but it was still like a big dam.

"Out the back, where we do all our mixing, that was probably the worst. We could've lost maybe up to $50,000 out the back and it's probably the same in the main shed."

Mr Frisby said he was surprised at how quickly he and his team bounced back from the flooding.

"We ended up opening back up on Monday afternoon. It was because we were all here," he said.

"It was pretty quiet because no one was in town anyway.

"It could've been worse."

Flooding came after Bathurst was smashed by 86.4 millimetres of rain to 9am Monday morning.

That was the most rain the city had received in a 24-hour period since February 1997, when 92mm was fell.

Floodwaters peaked at 6.64 metres, which was just below the 1998 floods, which hit a high of 6.7 metres.

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