On the night of June 5, 2016, residents in the town of Latrobe in Tasmania's north-west fell asleep to the sound of rain on their roofs.
Only a few hours later, the Mersey River broke its banks, sending much of the town underwater.
The rain falling in the distant catchments of the Western Tiers on that June weekend broke records, with 403 millimetres recorded over 48 hours.
The flooding in Latrobe was part of a state-wide catastrophe that claimed three lives and caused around $200 million of damage to property and infrastructure.
For dairy farmer Michael Perkins, the lack of warning meant he lost 100 cattle from his farm on the outskirts of the town.
"All of a sudden we heard a roar about one o'clock in the morning and thought 'what's that?'. We went out the back of the house and we were surrounded by water," Mr Perkins said.
"It came down in a wave and it was like a tsunami."
Mr Perkins's house was just high enough to be spared from the raging torrent of water, but his farm suffered extensive damage.
"I saw parts of houses and furniture and all sorts of stuff going past," he said.
Mr Perkins said with more warning he could have relocated all of his stock to higher ground.
"I think it was just a perfect storm. Everything came together to make a disaster," he said.
Torrent of water caught many by surprise
Latrobe resident Kathryn Bramich was also caught off-guard by how fast the water rose.
"I got up about one o'clock in the morning and walked down the staircase and stepped straight into water," she said.
The bottom storey of her historic house on the town's main street was completely flooded.
"Every window that I looked out from, there was water. You couldn't see any land," she said.
"If you lose possessions, you can replace them. I was one of the lucky ones, really."
Community spirit helped town recover
Gavin Imlach's caravan park, on the northern edge of the town, was already completely under water when he was awoken by a phone call from a neighbour.
There were 13 guests staying at the park at the time.
One of the guests had a heart attack during the emergency.
Mr Imlach said an ambulance wasn't able to reach them, but luckily the woman survived.
"They said, 'well, you've got to get her in the car and get her up into the main street or she is going to die'," Mr Imlach said.
When the water subsided, Mr Imlach said the site "looked like a rubbish tip".
"I didn't know where to start, and then the Latrobe Football Club turned up with trucks, trailers and people," he said.
"I couldn't get over it. It is a great little town."
Mayor says lack of warning hurt the town
For the Mayor of Latrobe, Peter Freshney, it was the lack of warning that "really hurt us and hurt the farmers".
"We were very much disadvantaged by the lack of appropriate warning," he said.
Mayor Freshney said while the town was expecting a minor flood, there was no indication the rain event would be so extreme.
"With the light of day came a realisation of the significance of what was happening," he said.
Report recommendations implemented
In response to the 2016 floods around the state, an independent review was commissioned by the state government.
The review found there were emergency response failures in Latrobe where "appropriate plans existed but may not have been acted on".
According to a Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman, improvements have since been made to the organisation's flood warning system.
"The bureau has uplifted the flood warning service for Mersey River through improved modelling tools and the expansion of the real-time flood warning network, resulting in more accurate and timely flood warnings," the spokeswoman said.
A state government spokeswoman said 14 of 24 recommendations from the review have now been implemented.
"The remaining 10 [recommendations] are to be delivered over longer time frames due to their complexity and ongoing nature," the spokeswoman said.
Construction of a $14 million flood mitigation project in Latrobe, with funding from the three tiers of government, is expected to start later this year.
The council said the project had been delayed due to a lack of funding, as well changes in its proposed design.
"We can't protect the whole catchment, but we can protect the densely populated parts of the town," Mayor Freshney said.
"You think of the Mersey when you think of Latrobe, so we don't want to lose that connection to the river, but we want to be protected from the river that we love and value."
