Colin Reid and Ray Dallinger are neighbours on Wingara Street and their properties back onto a storm water canal which carries flows to the Murray River.

A severe storm on January 14 saw water rise to the top of the canal for the second time in the space of a month, but Mr Reid and Mr Dallinger awoke to a rude shock the next day as around 12 metres of the rock and concrete retaining wall, which lines the storm water drain, had broken off.

Some of the pieces of rubble measured more than one metre long.

Mr Reid estimated the water was around six foot high and travelling between 40 and 50 kilometres per hour.

"It's actually quite frightening to see that amount of water and the speed it moves at," he said.

"It goes from nothing to completely full and raging like a rapid within an hour-and-a-half.

"If we get another rain event like we did that Friday (January 14), more of the wall is going to go.

"It's going to cost council more to fix and the possibility of flooding increases.

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"There would be at least a couple of tonne of rocks in the drain which could cause blockages.

"You don't realise the power of it until you see how much it has eroded the soil in an hour.

"Next it will be my fence and then it will start to flood my backyard."

Mr Reid has lived on Wingara Street only since 2019, but said the two times he'd seen the water this high had been in the past month.

A corner section of the wall broke off and was repaired in the time Mr Dallinger has resided in the street, but it didn't compare to the damage this storm caused.

"I measured some of the rocks and concrete and it was over a metre long," he said.

"There's about a metre down near the start of my block that is three or four foot with no earth in behind it, just a bit of wall sticking out.

"If you get water rushing down it's going to get in behind it and wash more soil out.

"Not only that, behind my shed is not filled with soil and there's a couple of deep cracks where the rocks are supposed to be joined up."

Albury Council announced last week it had sought disaster declaration support from the NSW government to fund repairs to community and public assets after the extreme storms.

More than half a million dollars in damage was caused, which didn't include any to private residences.

An Albury Council spokesperson said the priority was to remove the rubble so it doesn't obstruct water flow.

"This is another one of the hundreds of notifications we've received regarding water and flood damage and is also being investigated," the spokesperson said.

"The challenge you have is you can't repair one small section because the sections next to it are then under stress.

"In context of all the other damage we're looking at, we're very aware of it and an immediate rectification is the removal of rocks, which has to be done by crane in most instances.

"Moving forward, we're looking at a longer term rectification of all those drains, which is consistent with all of our assets."

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