When Gore resident Karla Graves pulled back the curtains on the morning of February 5, panic struck; her farm was surrounded by water.
Although the water was up to her knees, her husband refused to leave.
But when a neighbour turned up in a jet-boat he got in with the dog.
Insulation, cars, garage contents, including their washing machine and dryer, were written off.
They were also missing 15 sheep.
Across the region in Fiordland National Park, German tourists Chris and Annika Wurzel told reporters they thought they were never going to make it out alive, trapped between a slip of rocks the size of footballs and a road which disintegrated before their eyes.
"We climbed up a rock about three or four metres high and stayed there in the rain for two hours," Mr Wurzel said.
Freezing cold and afraid, they had no way of communicating with anyone.
The rainfall had reached dangerous levels when a state of emergency was declared in Fiordland at 1.40pm on February 3.
Heavy flooding cut off the only road out of Milford Sound, leaving nearly 500 people stranded.
Many held tight on a cruise ship, while others were taken to Mitre Peak Lodge as the Cleddau River level rose.
Working against the weather, rescue helicopters were poised to check on occupants and retrieve those stuck.
On State Highway 94, aerial images showed people clinging to rocks after abandoning their vehicles in search of higher ground.
Tourists trudged through knee-high water in an attempt to get to safety.
More than 70 people were helicoptered out from Forks Bridge, about 1.5km from the Homer Tunnel, Hollyford Rd and Gunn’s Camp.
They took refuge at a welfare centre in Te Anau.
Overnight, a landslip prompted evacuations from a hut on the Routeburn Track with 31 people inside.
Fiordland received nearly 600mm of rain in just 24 hours; the average for the entire month was just 450mm.
That was just the beginning.
On February 4, the Southland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group declared a state of emergency in Southland.
Gore, Mataura and Wyndham were hit hard as networks overflowed and roads were closed.
About 50 Gore residents were evacuated from their homes and moved to welfare centres in safer parts of town and Waimumu.
The following day, about 2000 residents from across the three towns were evacuated, and the New Zealand Defence Force was sent in to assist and assess the damage.
However, a new threat arose.
Environment Southland staff responded to reports the rising water of the Mataura River was coming close to an old paper mill.
Thousands of tonnes of a potentially dangerous substance, known as ouvea premix, was stored there.
Despite community concern, flood response heads were adamant the risk to people or the environment was minor.
The rain stopped, but rivers continued to rise.
On Wednesday, three days after the weather bomb hit, finally, Gore residents returned home.
Mataura and Wyndham residents followed suit the next day.
The clean-up was one of the largest the communities had ever faced.
Those who had lost so much rallied together to rebuild.
