While many people safely tucked away at home or in the office on Wednesday, several professions continued on as normal as it bucketed down.

Parts of Sydney, the Hunter region and wider NSW have copped a drenching, with a months' worth of rain over just two days bringing flash-flooding, road closures, rescues from cars trapped in rising water, and the closure of the runway at Newcastle airport.

Some took the advice of authorities and stayed home, but here are some of the people who didn't get to stay dry.

1. Power company crews

Around 80 crews from Ausgrid were sent out in heavy rain and intense winds to deal with "hazards" (like trees falling on power lines) after power went out, mostly around the Hunter region.

A video posted to Twitter on Wednesday showed two workers in hard hats being raised next to power lines in a cherry picker, as trees swayed in the wind behind them.

"Our crews are working safely in tough conditions to get power back to those affected by the storms," an Ausgrid spokeswoman said, adding the work had restored electricity to "a number of locations" around the Hunter.

2. Emergency Services

Police, Fire and Rescue NSW, Ambulance workers and the State Emergence Service all hit the road to help those in peril as soon as the rain started to fall.

Rescue crews donned helmets and specialised equipment as they clambered into floodwater to help trapped cars, and in Raymond Terrace near Newcastle, rescuers used inflatable and metal boats to cruise the flooded streets of the evacuated suburb as the rain kept falling.

3. Security guards

Though the only threat may have been hypothermia, guards continued to stand at their posts on Anzac Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The usually stoic fluoro-clad guards seemed visibly wilted, some brandishing large olive-green golf umbrellas while others pulled their rain jackets tightly around their faces and hunched over against the rain and the wind.

4. Builders

Construction sites in the inner city ground on despite the rain. Cars zipped by and pedestrians with umbrellas trudged past as one worker stood guard at the blocked-off section of George Street, while workers at Darling Harbour's International Convention Centre project donned rain jackets as they stood at barriers revelling in the never-ending soaking.

5. Waste disposal workers

Garbage disposal workers at Leichhardt Council were soaked to the bone but glad to get warm and dry when their shift ended at around lunchtime on Wednesday.

The council picks up rubbish the old-fashioned way, with workers walking behind the truck and picking up bins by hand, so there was little chance to escape the wet.

6. Postal workers

Posties and bike couriers alike soldiered on in the inclement weather.

In Sydney, as trucks and vans pulled in and out of the Australia Post depot at Alexandria, Michael "Doddsy" Dodds from Kranq Courier weaved around the city on his bike making deliveries.

The 35-year-old, from Redfern, was prepared for the rain: his phone in a zip-lock bag, a lightweight jacket that dried quickly as he walked into buildings to drop parcels off, and newspaper ready to stuff in his soaked shoes the second he got home.

Meanwhile, in the Hunter, deliveries to suburbs including Edgeworth, Morisset, Dungog, Singleton and Muswellbrook were delayed due to flooding.

"Our posties are doing their best to deliver mail wherever it's safe to do so," an Australia Post spokeswoman said.

7. Photographers and TV Reporters

Photographers, like Fairfax Media's Nick Moir, braved the elements.

Moir was recently caught in strong winds during the same storm that brought a tornado to Kurnell, and he was again amongst the storm in the Hunter on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, TV reporters donned gumboots and readied their umbrellas to stand in flooded areas, talking to residents in canoes and thankfully not taking to canoes themselves.