St Leonards man Phil Boxhall was helping a friend prepare for the floodwaters to reach his home when they were approached by his friend’s next door neighbour.

“They [the neighbour] had their inflatable dinghy set up and they were going across to get the sheep so we thought we’d lend a hand,” Mr Boxhall said.

The property had about eight sheep but tragically two of them were lost in the flood conditions. Mr Boxhall said the sheep were a bit stressed out and were running away from the boat at first but said they were pretty easy to drag through the water.

“They were pretty scared, they kept running away but they’d get tangled up [in the debris]. Once they got back on dry land they were ok, I think they were happy to be out of it,” Mr Boxhall said.

The neighbours got about three of the sheep into the dinghy but the last three were dragged through the water.