Wednesday night’s storms and torrential rain also interrupted the Hughes family’s movie viewing, when a retaining wall collapsed under the weight of the water.

Mr Triming received a phone call from the State Emergency Service about 9.15pm, mid-way through the film, saying a 15-20 metre poplar tree had fallen through the roof of his business, Bathurst Car Cosm-etics, in Rankin Street.

“I was just having a quiet night out with the boys when the call came,” he said.

“There wasn’t a lot I could do, so we stayed and watched the rest of the movie.”

Mr Triming, who operates the business with Michael Marton, said about half of the shed would have to be rebuilt.

“There are another two trees that look as if they are about to go, so we will have to shut down half the business for two or three days while the situation is assessed and the tree is removed,” he said.

Helen Hughes, of the Ashworth Estate in Kelso, was watching a movie with her husband, Tom, when she noticed water running down the kitchen window.

Concerned that the gutter was blocked, she asked Tom to have a look.

“After he checked that side of the house, he went around to check the blind side of the house,” she said.

Tom said while he was checking outside he heard the sound of steel buckling.

“I thought to myself, ‘I shouldn’t be out here’, and stepped back into the alcove near the laundry door.

“I saw the water pouring through the weep holes in the 2’6’’ high retaining wall and then it collapsed at my feet, bringing with it a river of mud.

“I was very lucky I had stepped back into the alcove.”

Miraculously, a ceramic Buddha sitting on top of the retaining wall emerged unscathed.

Mrs Hughes said she then contacted the SES.

“They were very prompt and they had about eight people out here,” she said.

“They sandbagged the side of the house and propped up the fence to stop it falling down and crashing through the windows on that side of the house.”