Cato Bailey, a resident of the North Queensland city since 2005, said he had been through cyclones, but nothing quite like this. 

“I’ve never seen a worse storm. I’ve been here since 2005 and we’ve had flooding during the different cyclones in low-lying suburbs, but not to this extent of constant rainfall over an extended period.”

Mr Bailey, who lives in the Greater Ascot area, said his suburb was largely undamaged because of special flood runoff catchments to reduce flood damage. 

“The area is considered ‘flood proof’ and no houses [here] have flooded, but it came scarily close,” he said. 

Even in areas purpose built to resist flooding, Mr Bailey said flood waters were still pushing ankle-to-knee deep. 

“I had been pretty casual about it just watching the water rise, but it raised a few eyebrows in concern when it started coming over the bushes.”

Working in real estate and serving in the Army Reserves, Mr Bailey said he knew a lot of people who had been deeply affected. 

“One of the ladies I work with has essentially lost everything, her house has flooded and she’s been evacuated, while another lady, one of my cooks in the reserves, has been moved to a multi-storey complex in Idalia to avoid the rising water from the Ross River.”

Mr Bailey said it has continued to be a threatening and somewhat scary situation that has also given him a much deeper understanding of why people built stilted “Queenslander” houses.