For Kathryn Bramich, seeing the devastation caused by raging floodwaters in Queensland and New South Wales in the media has brought back strong memories of the 2016 Tasmanian floods that changed her life.
The resident of the north-west Tasmanian town of Latrobe remembers she was also caught off-guard by how quickly the water rose in early June.
The bottom storey of her historic house on the town's main street was completely flooded.
Almost six years on, the township of Latrobe remains unprotected from floods, despite promises and commitments to build levees around the town that sits on the banks of the Mersey River.
"It has been quite a few years since it happened, so you would expect something by now would be well in place," Ms Bramich said.
Construction of Latrobe's $14 million flood mitigation project, which received funding from the three tiers of government, was due to start last year.
Latrobe's mayor Peter Freshney said he was "frustrated" the town remains at greater risk of inundation.
"On-the-ground construction hasn't started, it's been delayed by the environmental requirements associated with the project," Mayor Freshney said.
"I'm personally of the view that we won't get started on the ground until summer.
"The longer we take to get started, the longer it takes to finish the project and obviously, the greater the risk to our community."
Crayfish habitat latest hurdle for levees
The flooding in Latrobe was part of a state-wide catastrophe that claimed three lives and resulted in about $200 million of damage to property and infrastructure.
Mayor Freshney said environmental concerns around the possible impact to native burrowing crayfish habitat has been the most recent hurdle for construction.
"We're making provisions to relocate them and to make sure that we don't impact on the environment to any extent," he said.
"We have to go through a very stringent process. It's causing us delays that we certainly didn't envision but also can't afford."
While Mayor Freshney said the unfolding flood disaster on the mainland was more serious than what happened in Latrobe, he said there were some parallels.
He said even if construction was able to start immediately, it would be another 12 months before the project would be completed.
"Particularly when we're digging a 300-metre long culvert under the middle of the town, you never know what you're going to strike," he said.
"Hopefully it will never be used, never be tested, but we'll have it in place and do our best to prevent 2016 being repeated again."
'We need to do something'
Ms Bramich said she hoped to see some progress soon.
"Hopefully it never happens again and it was one of those freak events," she said.
Despite the flood risk, she said she wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
"We need to do something to look after it. It's a wonderful little town, it's a great community," she said.
"Even with everything that has happened, I still love living here and I want to stay here in Latrobe."
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".
Improvements have since been made to the Bureau of Meteorology's flood warning system and many of the recommendations from the review have since been implemented.
