There's nothing like borrowing underwear from your mate next door to really strengthen the bond between neighbours.
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But the last three weeks have been anything but "normal".
On November 14, 700-odd people from the Central West town of Eugowra woke to the sound of sirens bellowing throughout the village.
News travelled quickly between residents that record-level flash flooding had just ravaged Molong some 70 kilometres away with a south-west shift ... rapid waters were headed to Eugowra next.
Low-lying residents were ordered to evacuate their homes and head to higher-ground, though water was travelling almost as fast as the information was circulating.
Each person has a unique recount of their own experience on that whirlwind Monday.
For three Eugowra residents, neighbours and friends, Carol Monahan, Marianne Skeers and Liz Adams' stories are no different.
On Wednesday, they spoke of their ordeals from the outset; in the same room, at the same time, and for the first time.
A rollercoaster of strikingly different memories, they also unveiled crossovers of similarity - who was where, at what time, and how they eventually managed to find one another again.
One talked about being the last person to see her good friend Dianne Smith prior to her being pronounced missing, which was later followed by the tragic news of her death.
As these three women and their three rounds of stories played out, it appeared that one common theme emerged clearly by the close.
Amidst it all, it was the united front of gratitude in recovery, wrapped in camaraderie.
Carol Monahan
Eugowra resident of 12 years, 73-year-old Carol Monahan and her miniature Sheltie dog Ivy are currently couch surfing between friends' houses.
Recently widowed and now homeless, her house on Pye Street is currently dilapidated after being engulfed by severe flash floodwaters.
Though to consider the Scottish woman's pragmatic, can-do attitude toward life and its circumstances right now, it's one of admiration.
A friend of Diane Smith, the 60-year-old woman who was found tragically deceased on November 16, Mrs Monahan spoke of the last time she and a few others saw their dear friend.
It was after being rescued from her house and taken to the centre of town that Diane Smith and Mrs Monahan initially crossed paths around 7am.
"The water was getting deeper but we [Diane Smith and I] weren't panicking at this stage, and one of the blokes said 'you should be alright, we might only get a few inches [of water], but I can get you a couple of sandbags'," Mrs Monahan said.
"So I said 'alright, okay, well we might as well have something to eat while we wait'."
Making breakfast for the pair, Mrs Monahan made bacon in the air fryer, cooked eggs and brewed some cups of tea.
Di saw a guy from around town and asked 'could you give us a lift up to my mum and dad's'.
- Carol Monahan recalling the morning she spent with Diane Smith, before she was tragically found deceased days later.
"Di had a second cup of tea and I said 'I'll just go and see how the car is and if I should I move it'," she said, "and that's when I saw Posso [another Eugowra resident] and he said 'give me the key, I'll move your car somewhere higher' because the water starting rushing into my house at a very odd angle."
The women went around the back of the house and Ms Smith was said to spot a local she knew not long after.
"Di saw a guy from around town and asked 'could you give us a lift up to my mum and dad's'," Mrs Monahan said.
But there were also more women and children needing assistance at the time.
"I wouldn't remember his face if I saw him, but this guy said 'can someone drive the ute' and we'd all follow with the kids in another car," Mrs Monahan said.
"Di said 'yeah I will' and she was comfortable doing that, so she got into the ute ... but by the time we did all of the maneuvering into the second car - people scared and starting to get frightened - all I saw when I looked up the street was Di driving up that way."
It was this time when floodwaters then rapidly zeroed-in on Eugowra streets.
"And that was the last [time] I saw her," Mrs Monahan said.
Referred to as an "inland tsunami" by many in the town, Mrs Monahan's convoy were not able to get to higher-ground before water engulfed the vehicle.
Climbing with little Ivy to the top of another car and into a fire truck, she barely made it six metres from the front door of her house by the time residents were stranded wherever they were.
Scaling up a ladder to get closer to buildings, Mrs Monahan and her Sheltie had to enter the water before finally seeking safety on an awning.
They sat there stranded until 5.30pm the same afternoon.
"I was alright with jumping in, I said 'mate, I'll jump into the water and you catch me, but I mean, you've got me when I'm half fit and there was lots of swearing from me, but off I went," Mrs Monahan said.
"But the fascinating thing for me in all of this was ... there were just extraordinary people. People were scared, naturally, but what I've seen people do for others and the help we've had pouring in, it's just been extraordinary."
Marianne Skeers
Eugowra resident of 36-years and a well-known hairdresser in the town, Marianne Skeers will celebrate her 60th birthday milestone in March of next year.
With the post-flood odour lingering in her house that now echoes from emptiness, there's not a whole lot to feel celebratory about at the moment.
Though the sound of her loud and infectious laughter - with a sense of humour next to none - carries a strength from wall to wall, as she's somehow managed to keep herself in high spirits, even with minimal belongings left and grief hanging thick in the air.
"No one's life is easy, everybody has dramas, but I suppose it's how you handle those dramas, you know?," Mrs Skeers said.
"We've had good help and people have been amazing, the support has just been unreal."
As the dogs barked along with sirens ringing out on Monday morning, the unknown outcome of the flood was initially thought to require "ankle-high gumboots".
Throwing her handbag over her head like a decorative necklace, Mrs Skeers grabbed her iPad, some filing drawers and her dogs, and threw them all in the car together.
Speeding to higher ground, she talked of watching apocalyptic-like water in the rear view mirror of her vehicle.
"You'd look to your right and it was just this wall of water coming in, you'd look to your left and see the same thing," she said.
"It felt like being in a movie, it didn't feel real at the time, but you're also in this survival mode of action where you just try to get yourself out and get to safety."
Mrs Skeers couldn't get to her next door neighbour, Liz Adams, so she called her and said "Liz, you need to get out now".
Arriving at the showground, she said the scene was very emotional or filled with "vacant" expressions on peoples' faces, with elderly residents bloodied up from being cut from debris in the water.
Eventually reconnecting with her neighbour, swapping stories on Wednesday also brought about the realisation that Mrs Adams almost didn't get to the showground at all.
Liz Adams
Only a few weeks off of turning 67-years-old and due to retire in December, Wednesday's lunch for Eugowra's Liz Adams was an egg sandwich and fruit salad from the "Eugowra Stores" - the emergency food relief set-up at the town's showground.
"There was only one yoghurt left today, so Marianne gave me the other half of hers," Mrs Adams said, "but geez we've shared more than that during these last couple of weeks."
Sitting alongside her neighbour of 30-odd years, Mrs Adams and Marianne Skeers giggled uncontrollably at some of the quirky and unique moments they've shared since November 14.
"I said 'well don't go telling the world you've taken my undies Liz' and here she is telling the world, see," Mrs Skeers said.
"I said 'they'll probably fall off your bum, but here you go'."
An evidently tight-knit bond loomed between the two as they bounced off of one another and shared inside jokes.
Sadly though, there was nothing humourous about Mrs Adams' unfolding of events on that Monday.
"I didn't fully realise this until maybe three or four days later, but I thought about where I was stuck and I think I would've died there if those two boys didn't come and get me out," she said.
Vacating the premises, Mrs Adams made her way two houses down to head closer to Eugowra's town centre.
Floodwater rushed in quickly during her on-foot commute, where she ended up waist-deep in floodwaters and holding onto garden shrubbery near a garage awning to steady herself.
"The boys were only about 16 and 18-years-old and they came out in the water to get me," she said.
Lifting her safely into their four-wheel drive, the first two nights she stayed in Parkes with Mrs Skeers' sons after she told Mrs Adams "you're coming with me, you".
I think I would've died there if those two boys didn't come and get me out ...
- Liz Adams on being rescued in floodwaters by teenage boys on November 14.
And despite the frightening ordeal, delayed realisation of events, and a forced open-plan flooring plan in her house now, she said that "whatever's going on in life, you just learn to work around".
"Like now, we'll all make a different life," Mrs Adams said, who is currently staying in the granny flat at a goat stud farm of a client she used to care for as a support worker.
"We used to be looking in dress shops and saying 'oh look at that lovely thing' but now we're all hunting for where we can get a new wheelie bin and rebuild everything again."
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