Police were forced to close off Lovell Street to cars between Lynch and Main Streets as water poured across the road while the railway line took on the appearance of a creek in flood as the drainage system failed to cope with the downpour.

Power supply was also affected with homes and businesses across town losing power for around 45 minutes after a lightning strike to the Country Energy network.

Country Energy said 5500 customers were without power while a fault at the Young substation was fixed.

The storm appears to have been concentrated over Young itself with little or no rain falling on outlying areas - the Bureau of Meteorology’s station at Young Airport recorded just 2.4mm of rain up until 9am on Friday morning while anecdotal evidence suggests rainfall of up to 50mm in some areas.

Among those worst affected was the Young Caravan Tourist Park which is readying itself for the busiest time of the year as cherry season approaches.

Owner, Len Symington, said he had been cleaning up until 11.30pm on Thursday night with the water washing tents to the ground and flowing through the camp’s residence and reception area.

“We had 15 tents washed to the ground and I’ve had to put 25 people into cabins,” Mr Symington said.

“It was two feet high at its high point...just like a dam burst,” he said.

The water level reached the doors of the Empire Hotel and only sandbagging at the rear entrance of Donges Supa IGA prevented the water from entering.

Watson Toyota’s rear saleyard was also covered with water which a layer of mud 1cm thick left through their workshop.

Young Shire Council general manager, Peter Vlatko, said there are enough drains but conceded there was a problem with them coping with heavy downpours such as the one on Thursday evening.

“We believe we do have a problem and we are having a study done on how to get rid of it,” Mr Vlatko said.

“It’s been raised by some of the business people and Council is not ignoring the problem, it is being looked at as a high priority,” he said.