Roger Goodwin had an unpleasant feeling of recall this week as monsoonal record-breaking rains drenched north Queensland.

In just 24 hours, 320mm of rain fell on the town of Ayr, south of Townsville.

Mr Goodwin's Bluewater property, north of Townsville, was inundated last January and February after a monsoonal low dumped 200 centimetres of rain over the region in a little over a week.

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"We are going into this 12-month anniversary and a bit of deja vu was happening," Mr Goodwin said.

"You'd lay in bed and hear the rain and you go out with a torch at one or two in the morning and think 'is the water coming up?'"

Mr Goodwin said last year's flooding took him and his family by surprise and he recalled watching floodwaters getting closer while he tried to salvage items from the office under his high-set house.

His ute and shed were washed away and he could hear debris like fridges and furniture from other people's houses crashing into the steel poles of his home.

"Just the force and how quick that water came to the house — no warning, no pre-warning.

"It was quite daunting to see that water come up so quick."

Recovery drags on

According to last month's figures from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, 1,800 of the 3,300 flood-damaged homes were still damaged and 740 still uninhabitable.

In the suburb of Fairfield Waters about one in every 10 houses still had tradesmen working on flood repairs while some houses remained empty or with work yet to start.

For many, ongoing insurance negotiations are contributing to their slow recovery.

Sarah Little and Chris Baker are living in a half-repaired house and using a portable ensuite as they do not have a functional bathroom.

Ms Little said their insurer had "pulled the pin" on their claim and their house was being held together by plywood panels.

Sarah Little and Chris Baker are still using a portable bathroom, a year after the flooding. ( ABC News: Sofie Wainwright )

"They've demolished the home and then they've decided that once they've removed the walls, they were not going to continue with the repairs because it was getting too costly for them," Ms Little said.

"It's been quite draining, mentally, physically, emotionally.

"I'm a teacher and I have to go to work and be all smiley for the kids but I'm dealing with my own inner demons and living in a home that's uninhabitable."

The couple has lodged a claim with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and are waiting on a review of their situation.

A year after the floods, skip bins and port-a-loos still pepper the streets of Fairfield Waters. ( ABC North Queensland: Nathalie Fernbach )

Rebuilding small business with community support

Steve Law's cafe had more than a metre of water through it and was the first in the shopping centre to re-open six weeks after the water receded.

He said he had heard from many of his flood-impacted customers how valuable it was to have the business re-open so soon after the disaster.

"A 'community service' was the word they used. I didn't realise it at the time but it was," Mr Laws said.

"People were unhappy and upset and they needed a bit of normalcy in their lives."

More than a metre of water came through Steve Law's Fairfield Waters cafe. ( ABC North Queensland: Nathalie Fernbach )

The restoration of Morris Peluchetti's newsagency took eight months and he has borne the rebuild cost of $400,000 as his insurance claim is still not settled.

He was emotional as he talked about the challenging process of getting his business back up and running.

"It has been an awful battle with the insurance," Mr Peluchetti said.

"We were going to walk away with nothing if we didn't re-open, and the community supported us unbelievably and we just felt it was important to get back here and give back to the community."

Townsville residents unprepared for flood

Yetta Gurtner, a researcher with the James Cook University Centre for Disaster Studies, conducted a study of more than 700 residents during the 2019 flood event.

Newsagency owners Annette and Morris Peluchetti celebrate the re-opening of their shop eight months after it flooded. ( ABC North Queensland: Nathalie Fernbach )

She said the 2019 flooding took residents by surprise as it had been 21 years since the last major flood — 1998's 'night of Noah'.

"People were prepared for cyclones but a lot of them hadn't actually prepared for floods," Dr Gurtner said.

"Townsville has a very big transient population; what we understand in disasters is that local knowledge is the most important thing in terms of being prepared.

"These people don't have that local knowledge."

Insurance misunderstandings

One of the key findings of the JCU survey was that residents were complacent about disaster preparation and many had left it to the last minute.

"People were ready for maybe two or three days [but] they weren't prepared for 10 days when all the shops were closed," Dr Gurtner said.

She said the other main findings from the survey were that people did not understand or respond to official messaging, people were reacting to rumours rather than seeking verified information, and people did not understand their insurance.

Dr Gurtner's survey found residents were complacent about disaster preparation. ( AAP: Andrew Rankin )

"People were underinsured, not insured, or didn't know what their insurance policies covered so when it came to recovery, that was a huge problem that created delays," Dr Gurtner said.

"The individual has to take responsibility for their own actions: the more prepared you are the quicker your recovery from a disaster situation."

Recovering from trauma of flooding

Twelve months after the floods, Mr Goodwin still occasionally unearths a tool or item presumed lost in the floods when he is gardening.

He said it would probably be another year before his property was back to normal and estimated it could take up to a decade for people to recover from the trauma of the event.

"I don't think psychologically that this is going to leave a lot of people's memories for a long time," Mr Goodwin said.

"They still talk about Yasi, so those sort of things still remain in people's memories [and] the people here in Bluewater have every right to still feel that grief and that loss."

He said the Bluewater community shared their stories and he had heard that some children now became unsettled when it rained.

"The best thing they should do is let that out, speak about it, and I think in some ways, that helps," he said.