The storm, described as a "mini Cyclone Gabrielle", unleashed powerful rainfall, hail and winds that wreaked particular havoc in the Hunt Rd valley.
While buildings and vehicles were damaged by hail, a torrent of water up to 1m deep flooded the valley, destroying fences, washing away stock and baleage and leaving debris in its wake.
Hunt Rd farmer Roger Cotton said he had seen nothing like it in 34 years of farming in the area.
"Concrete water troughs with hundred of litres in them, connected to pipes and bedded six inches into the ground years ago were just washed away. I wouldn’t have imagined that could happen."
Land was gouged by slips and some areas collected uncanny mountains of timber slash
Mr Cotton had about 24 animals killed, almost 4.5km of fencing destroyed, a dozen bales of feed lost and almost 100 more needing to be re-wrapped.
He had two diggers at work, was organising fencing contractors for several weeks’ work and guessed about half a dozen neighbouring farms suffered similar damage.
Physical cleanup and managing insurance claims are on top of a busy seasonal workload of ramming and lamb-finishing.
Mr Cotton said he had claimed over $300,000 and hoped the fencing payout would be enough, while pointing out stock-loss was not insurable.
"It’s just a freak event.
"You might not see it again in our lifetime, or you might see it again next week," he said.
"I don’t think there was anything that might have been done to prevent what happened but you keep in mind what you’ve learned as you move on with it."
He said lessons learned from this storm, included relocating fences to higher ground where possible, and being mindful where assets and waste could be positioned.
"With fences down there is an opportunity to get in close to other farm maintenance tasks, like pruning trees, repairing infrastructure."
The impact of the storm will be felt for some time but as the recovery continues the resilience of Lawrence’s community is evident and farmers are hopeful that they will return to normal operations soon.
