Friday night's ferocious storm blew air conditioners clean off roofs, turned swimming pools black and felled trees across Albury-Wodonga, leading to a significant clean-up effort on Saturday.
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Wodonga's Rachael Fletcher spent Friday night calming her seven-year-old daughter, Leilah, after a tree fell across their roof.
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"At about 11am (on Friday night) I heard bang and actually thought it was maybe just lighting and my hubby said 'Oh we've got a tree on the roof'. It was pretty big, it went all the way to the top of our roof."
Mrs Fletcher, who lives in Streets Road, Wodonga, said the damage was largely superficial, with the timber at the front of the house damaged and many roof tiles breaking.
"Luckily we didn't get any actual rain inside the house from the cracked tiles because it was a pretty big branch that fell down," she said.
Mrs Fletcher said having lived in Townsville she was used to preparing for cyclones but never imagined a massive storm damaging her home in Wodonga.
The storm brought wild winds, an awe-inspiring lightning show, heavy rain and hail to the region.
Parts of Albury and Thurgoona were inundated with rain, which caused flash flooding across the region.
The Bureau of Meteorology said 69.2 mm of rain fell at Albury airport, the majority of it occurring in a short burst between 11.30pm and 12.30am.
Emergency services including the State Emergency Service, Country Fire Authority and council workers spent much of Friday night and Saturday assessing damage and assisting residents.
Fellow Streets Road resident Bob Ackerly was also grateful to have sustained little damage after a large tree fell in front of his house.
"We're very lucky because it fell on the roadside not on the house," he said.
"I don't know if it was hit by lightning or not, but all the branches are jagged and twisted off."
Mr Ackerly said the storm also moved outdoor furniture around, leaving most of it in his pool. He spent most of the night running around checking on external parts of the house after seeing a neighbour's air conditioner fly off their roof and smash into the ground.
"I think the thing for me is I was surprised just how many people came out to help," he said.
"The tree was probably half across the road and about 20 blokes came from nowhere and everyone was helping to get the tree off the road. It was really surprising how everyone pulled in and helped, it was just great."
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