"The boats have gone up higher than the jetties they're tied to," he said.

"It's been raining very, very hard the last two days - the river has risen over two metres."

The inaugural coach of the Illawarra Hawks in 1979 in the first season of the National Basketball League, Joe retired to Sussex Inlet in 2013.

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Thankfully, he only had water enter his basement but many others in Sussex Inlet weren't so lucky on Tuesday.

"Sussex Inlet road is flooded in quite a few places, the caravan park has got water right up to its cabins and the walkway is flooded," he said.

"There's a lot of water in the lower parts of town and quite a few people have been asked to leave their house.

"Luckily we live on a crest of River Road, but the street bellow us is right on the riverfront and that has been flooded."

Around 20 homes in Sussex Inlet were ordered to excavate by the SES and the St Georges Basin SES unit had received 320 jobs since midnight on Saturday.

But floods are only the second natural disaster to hit the town in the last six months.

Over the Christmas holidays during the Currowan Fire Joe and his wife evacuated Sussex Inlet.

They were escorted by police to the Princes Highway and the road was closed shortly after.

"The fire came to the end of our street but luckily it just went on north and didn't turn this way."

The fire got within 400 metres of Joe's property.

"If there was a change of wind it would have come this way, but the firies did a great job."

Although the past six months has been challenging, Joe had a traumatic experience with bushfires in the past.

He was living in Gippsland, Victoria when a particularly bad bushfire burnt through.

"I used to teach in a college and unfortunately we lost some students who lived on farms."

Joe and a few teachers were due to take those students on a school trip to Europe.

With all the challenges the Sussex community has faced, Joe still believes it is a joy to live there.

"Being of a certain age, a lot of people have been through quite a few things over many years so they're resilient, strong and very pragmatic about what nature can dish out.

"They just get up and get going again."