Lismore's flood watch, warning and 'prepare to evacuate' messages from the NSW SES had many businesses in two minds about whether to implement their flood plan or take a risk that the end result will not impact their business.

For most, that risk is a fine line between doors open and doors permanently closed.

A quick survey around the CBD block showed a 50/50 mix of owners packing up and making an educated call on what the low-pressure system was going to do and how big it was.

Deb Ray from Music Bizarre in Magellan Street told the Lismore App she couldn't really take any chances.

"I felt like it was pretty risky, you just can't tell watching the radar and stuff at times. It was breaking up and going out to sea, it's gonna come south of us and then it was like, no, it's not, it's regrouped and coming straight for us. You just can't tell how extreme it's going be or whether it's going to keep sitting or do that stalling thing and keep gathering more moisture from the ocean."

"So, I felt like we couldn't really take chances and I'm less prepared than normal for a flood because I've still got all this stock I'm trying to salvage from February's flood. So I've got stuff everywhere and a really chaotic mess and I also really don't want to allow stuff to get covered in flood mud that people have so carefully washed for me and returned to me because so many people have helped."

(Deb Ray restocking Music Bizarre yesterday)

Deb's house and business were flooded in February so for the first time in Lismore, she is renting a house out of the flood plain.

"This was a huge relief. We took crates and crates of records, clothes, CDs and computers up there then we put some stuff upstairs."

Deb's feeling was this weather system was going to come over the levee wall (10.2-10.6 metres) which does mean water into her store.

"As awful as it is to unpack everything again and as exhausted as I am, this was the best scenario for me."

Next door at Leo's Food Bar, Warren and Judy Baxter they put their new flood plan to the test after rewriting it following February 28.

"Anything that goes within half a metre of the levee wall, we will pack up," Warren said," All the information we were gathering from the SES, the BOM as they indicated was 9.7 and the levee wall tops at 10.2 so we packed up."

"The amount of stock we lost in the first one, we just couldn't do it again."

(Warren and Judy Baxter restocking at Leo's Food Bar in Magellan Street)

The packing-up process took Warren and Judy about nine (9) to twelve (12) hours. Warren explained that everything is now either on wheels or is removable.

"We take everything out and put it in a trailer, take it out and store it in a shed and then bring it back."

"We learnt a lot about what we need to do as there were some issues with the larger ones (counters and electrical coolers) so we'll just alter our plan again and next time we should do it more fluently."

Today was an unpacking day for Leo's Food Bar and after ordering new stock (perishables had to be thrown away) they will reopen tomorrow (Wednesday) from 9am.

Anthony McDonald at Lanna Pad Thai said he took a bit of gear upstairs and had some friends ready with trucks just in case. "When I woke up on Monday to blue skies I wasn't too worried about it."

Lanna Pad Thai was back open on Monday.

On to Keen Street, where Matt Healey decided to do a "small" pack up which meant all stock below chest high went to the third floor which has been set up to protect all stock if necessary as part of a revamped flood plan from February 28.

"We were getting so many conflicting reports that we couldn't risk not lifting. So, late Sunday morning we made the decision and by lunchtime, the team assembled and we took about two and a half hours to lift everything."

"All the indications on Sunday morning were that it was going to be just over the wall and that means about a metre of water here on the floor and we thought that just over the wall meant that chest high was plenty high enough."

Daleys Homewares will reopen at 9am today (Wednesday) morning.

Adornments, a few doors down from Daleys, saw Christine and Robert Miller hard at work unpacking and placing their shop's items back in cabinets and on the floor. They are looking at a reopen on Friday.

"We live in Bexhill and came in on Saturday and saw that no one else was packing up. But then we saw that it just kept on coming south. I had my sons in Sydney and Brisbane saying "what are you doing? Are you lifting yet?". So, trying to find what the real news was really hard."

"We saw Matt (from Daleys) was packing up so we made the call on Sunday to pack up too."

(Robert and Christine Miller working hard to reopen Adornments in Keen Street)

Adornments have a lot of smaller, fiddly, fragile items so the pack-up took around twelve (12) hours to complete the transfer from the ground floor to the second level. As Robert was coming back in on Monday he looked at the weather system and decided to not pack the cabinets into the truck and remove them. Then, to top it all off the road was closed from Bexhill.

Janice Palmer from Shoppe One got no sleep on Sunday night. "I made a judgement call as the night went on to not pack up but we were ready if we need to start packing."

Shoppe One's floor at the entrance is 10m high and Janice thought this was not going to be a major flood. As for testing out the revised flood plan?

"We'll just have to wait and see," Janice said, "Hopefully we won't test it out any time soon. We have the trailer out the back waiting."

"What we are doing is packing up the on-line stock to reduce the amount we would have to pack if another major flood came over the levee bank."

This flood proved that emotions are still heightened, not just for the residents of Lismore but for business owners too. They know that they are hanging on hoping for no more flooding until Christmas.

History indicates there is the possibility for another flood before December 31.

So far in 2022, Lismore has suffered through four (4) floods. In 1967, 1974 and 1988 there were five (5) floods in a calendar year. The good news is that there have never been more than 2 major floods in a year and we have ticked that box already.

I know, we had never had a 14.4m flood before until February 28 but I prefer to look on the bright side of life.