WATCH: Floodwaters rip home from its bearings as devastated family look on in horror
A Gold Coast family watched on and filmed as their home was swept away in floodwaters moments after they were rescued from its roof.
With the Albert River swollen and swamping the hinterland on Friday night, a mother and her two children were forced to seek the safety of their roof in Luscombe.
Following torrential downpours on the back of ex-cyclone Debbie, the river had burst its banks and the family had to wait for a rescue in the dark, the ABC reports.
Neighbours directed an SES crew to the family's aid, the trio of rescuers arriving in the final moments before the house was pushed from its foundations.
"I climbed over the balcony hands and knees along the awning, stood up and made my first real contact with the parent and the two kids," one of the rescuers told the ABC.
The family climbed into the boat with the three rescuers who were already carrying another man from the community and two dogs.
As the rescue craft pushed off down the flooded river, the family watched as the house was ripped free from the ground and sailed down the tumescent stream in the rural town.
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After travelling several metres the house was met by small clusters of trees, but they were no match for the drifting family home that snapped the trees like twigs.
The house mowed the trees down again and again as it was washed away in the Albert's floodwaters.
Rockhampton braces for flood disaster
The central Queensland town of Rockhampton is bracing itself for its worst flooding in more than 60 years as the clean-up after Cyclone Debbie continues across two states.
Forecasters warn the Fitzroy River will surge to a peak of 9.4m on Wednesday, an inundation not seen in the town since February 1954.
A temporary levee has been erected around Rockhampton Airport, which is due to close at noon on Monday as the waters threaten to swamp the runway.
More than 3000 homes and 1500 businesses in low-lying parts are expected to be affected by the flooding, as well as roads and railways.
Meanwhile, the gruelling clean-up has begun in Queensland's southeast and northern NSW, where at least five people are believed to have died as a result of flooding.
Three men and two women were killed in separate incidents on Friday and Saturday as the extent of the weather took many by surprise despite repeated warnings from authorities.
Logan mayor Luke Smith said on Sunday that almost 290 homes in the council area, south of Brisbane, could have been inundated by water.
Mr Smith said the unprecedented destruction meant the sky would be the limit when it came to estimating the damage bill.
Lismore mayor Isaac Smith said northern NSW looked like "a war zone", with an estimated 15,000 properties isolated by flooding.
Water levels in Lismore peaked within a metre of the 1974 record of 12.2m on Friday.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will on Monday speak to locals and survey the damage when he tours the flood-hit northern NSW towns of Lismore and Murwillumbah, before heading to across the border to Beenleigh in south-east Queensland.
He will be joined by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Murwillumbah.
- With AAP
