Lismore, in northern NSW, copped it. Imagine 700mm of rain in just 30 hours.

And that was until Monday. There was more, but really, the numbers are the last thing on peoples' minds.

Earlier this week the focus was survival. Simple as that.

Now, it's the clean-up.

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And as the stench gets worse every day, the town continues to suffer. Its population is also facing shortages of essentials such as food, fuel, fresh water and cash as ATMs run out of money.

Thousands of properties remain without power after flooding earlier in the week.

Essential Energy said on Thursday night there were 13,800 customers without power in the Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers regions, after power had been restored to more than 28,800.

Much of the damaged network is still underwater.

As Lismore sets its sights on recovery - as difficult as that may seem right now - communities on the outskirts of Sydney watch, wait and, in many cases, evacuate.

Tens of thousands of people living in Sydney's west, north-west and south-western suburbs including Windsor, North Richmond, Camden and Milperra have been ordered to flee with evacuation centres set up in suburbs including Canley Vale and Blacktown.

This crisis is not done with yet.

How the flood crisis panned out on Thursday