Orange City unit commander, Inspector Rob Stevens, said one car became stuck in the floods after water stalled the vehicle.

Mr Stevens said some people even drove around an SES vehicle that was parked at the site to warn people not to go through the water.

"We had a few motorists driving through. People were ignoring the safety warnings. The stupidity of some people to drive through," he said.

The flooded bridge was one of 12 jobs the SES was called to after the heavens opened up with a major storm at 9pm.

The city received about 30 millimetres of rain in 40 minutes.

"We had 20 separate call outs over the weekend. Most were for flooded houses," he said.

"It was very widespread."

Mr Stevens said the damage included stormwater pipes bursting, straight inundation into houses and the collapse of a retaining wall leading to a house being flooded.

"It was the short, sharp nature of the rain event. Overall it was just a lot of water.

"We managed to clear everything by quarter to three."

The SES also issued a warning to motorists on its Facebook site.

It said emergency calls started at around 10pm.

"Of note are sections of roadway where we've had several vehicles ignoring warnings and driving into extremely deep (up to 700 millimetres deep) fast flowing water with at least one motor vehicle stalling out completely due to water ingress.

"Luckily these people were able to self extricate and get to safety. Please remember, if it's flooded...forget it," it said.

In the past three days Orange has received about 120 millimetres of rain including more than 50 millimetres on Saturday night.

It was the first rain for the entire month but it was enough to be nearly double the average rainfall figure for March, which is 69.3 millimetres.

The rainfall was also just less than the 130 millimetres recorded for the whole month of March last year.

Orange received far more rain on Saturday night than other nearby cities. Mudgee received 19.6 millimetres, Bathurst 14.6 mm, Dubbo seven mm and Parkes 3.8 mm.

The forecast for the week ahead sees a slight chance of rain of up to three millimetres. Otherwise it is expected to be cloudy with temperatures of up to 21 degrees by Friday. Overnight the temperature is set to drop to about five degrees.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: