Major flooding is continuing at Lismore, Grafton, and Coraki in New South Wales, but waters are receding below Lismore's flood levee.
About 27,000 people remain affected by several State Emergency Service (SES) evacuation orders due to the flooding and 6,000 homes remain without power.
SES Acting Commissioner Daniel Austin said there was still significant riverine flooding to come and a significant amount of water already on the ground.
"That water needs to discharge through these systems," he said.
"The riverine threat is certainly not over at this point in time. There are a number of days to come before these waters come back to usual levels."
Meanwhile, residents at Bungawalbin and Woodburn in the Richmond Valley have been given the all-clear to return home.
Residents facing second clean-up in a month
Residents in northern NSW are now facing the clean-up process for the second time in a month.
Michael Penkilis was in tears while he waited for floodwaters to peak outside his Bungawalbin home today, one month after rapidly rising floodwaters left him scrambling for higher ground.
"I woke up this morning with a foot of water over the property. On the road it's a foot deep all the way, it's a river out front," he said.
His home is on the Richmond River, one of several across the Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast currently in major flood.
The Wilsons River at Lismore peaked at 11.4m on Wednesday, below predictions of 12m but above the 10.6m levee, with waters receding below that this morning.
The levee over topped less than 24 hours after an initial safe return was put out for the Lismore CBD on Tuesday afternoon.
Mr Austin again defended that decision given the river levels at the time.
"We do not have the joy of hindsight when predicting whether or not to lift those warnings," he said.
"And at the point in time, it is still my belief that that call was the right call to make."
Rain eases across Northern Rivers
There was some relief for residents this morning with the cancellation of widespread severe weather warnings.
"We're not expecting any significant falls across the Northern Rivers during the course of today so that will really allow the river systems to reach their peaks and not have further falls to exacerbate the flooding situation," said Jenny Surrick from the Bureau of Meterology (BOM).
However, Ms Surrick is urging residents, particularly along the Mid North Coast to keep across the dynamic situation.
"At the moment, the convergence of rainfall does seem to be a little further south from the catchment areas during the course of today.
"[But] we are expecting some further rainfall and look, it could intensify."
Woman still missing
Police say Anita Brakel, 55, remains missing after she was reportedly trapped in her white Holden Captiva wagon south of Lismore on Tuesday morning.
Officers searched the area for several hours for the aged care nurse, who had travelled to the region from Nowra in southern NSW to work, but could not locate her.
The search for Ms Brakel and her vehicle resumed on Wednesday morning, and police released a picture of her as part of a public appeal on Wednesday night.
Assistant Police Commissioner Joe Cassar said officers searched the area extensively.
"We haven't been able to locate that vehicle or that person at the time. The search continues throughout the day," he said.
"As you can appreciate, there are high floodwaters so we'll continue that search."
The State Emergency Service (SES) said there had been 420 requests for help in the Northern Rivers in the past 24 hours, and 248 on the Mid North Coast, including 19 flood rescues.
"In Bobs Creek, we had a rescue last night for three people who had driven a vehicle off a bridge and into floodwater," Jake Hoppe from the SES said.
"We also had a rescue in Sancrox for a male that had driven his vehicle into floodwater and was retrieved by Ambulance NSW some distance away from the vehicle."
'We will need more support'
Linda Kirk couldn't hold back tears as she surveyed the latest flooding near the Lismore Square shopping centre.
"There will be a lot more people [affected]. We will need a lot more support: emotionally, financially and physically, due to this again.
"And it's not just our town, it's all the little surrounding towns: Coraki, Casino, Ballina, Evans Heads, Yamba, it all goes down river."
She said she had a sleepless night worrying about the need for evacuations in the area, even after an initial safe return was put out for the Lismore CBD on Tuesday afternoon.
"Why do they put something out like this [a safe return alert] when, as a community member, you know, it's not like, 'oh the river's just not going to rise now, we can all go home'."
"It's just overwhelming knowing that the houses over in [the] south and north are shells of what they once used to be, and the feelings of what everyone's going through.
"Knowing that the rubbish hasn't all been picked up [from the flood four weeks ago], that's added trauma to the businesses."
