What happens once the "mud army" has retreated and the volunteers, charities, politicians and journalists have disappeared?
Paul Harding, who lives at Goodna west of Brisbane, said he found out the answer just days after the February flood: You're forced to put yourself back together.
"As soon as day 10 hit, everything was gone, everything just stopped," he said.
"Food drops stopped without notice, there was a portaloo on the street and it was taken away, and no-one gave us the heads-up.
"You don't hear anything. You don't know what's going on. You don't know what the next step is.
"[You] definitely feel abandoned. I think everyone in Goodna is feeling that way."
It's been just over three months since the flood disaster, and Goodna's Enid Street looks much the same as it did in March.
"There are 15 houses in the street — there's only three of them occupied at the moment," Mr Harding said.
"The adrenaline has worn off, the positivity has worn off."
He has just moved back into his house after living in a caravan on the front lawn.
"It's very hard to stay motivated … that 'yes, we can get through this' — it's all starting to eat away at you mentally," Mr Harding said.
Three-time flood victim says enough is enough
His neighbour, Margaret Kloostra, has only returned to her home a handful of times since the water reached the second floor.
What was once a place filled with a lifetime of memories has become a house of horror.
"I can't face it anymore — it's too much," she said.
Ms Kloostra has lived in the home for the past 50 years and it is where she raised her four children.
However, after watching water tear through the home in 1974, in 2011 and again this year, she said her heart was no longer at home in Enid Street.
"It would actually be quite easy now [to say goodbye to this house]," she said.
"If you'd asked me a few months ago, it might have been different, but I'm feeling that [three times is] enough.
"This one was just awful — everything about it was awful and I knew that that had to be it. This one really hit me."
Ms Kloostra and Mr Harding are among hundreds of people who have registered their interest in the state government's home buyback scheme.
No timeline for Resilient Homes Fund
New data from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) has shown that more than 2,600 people have put their names down for funding from the $721 million Resilient Homes Fund.
Of those, 325 registered for the buyback scheme, 850 to raise their homes, another 850 for retrofitting, and 420 are unsure.
QRA chief executive Brendan Moon said he could not give a deadline for when residents would know the outcome of their applications.
"We haven't set any timelines at this point," he said.
"This will be a marathon, given we have 7,000 homes that have been impacted by this event alone.
"What we want to do is have a conversation and look at how we best manage that flood risk into the future."
Living in limbo
From next week, QRA employees will be going street to street, and home to home, to survey how residents are recovering.
"We'll be doing door-knocking. We'll have boots on ground, getting an understanding of those who haven't accessed the online option," Mr Moon said.
"We want to ensure that people don't fall between the cracks."
Maryborough residents will be targeted next week, before the QRA heads further south, touching base with Ipswich and Brisbane residents within a month.
It's understood that it could be much longer before flood victims know if they will be approved for assistance from the Resilient Homes Fund.
Mr Harding said he would have to wait until then to know where his life would be headed.
"We need to know. We need to come up with a plan. We need to know where we're going," he said.
"This is starting to be as stressful as going through the floods.
"We need to know if our homes are going to be bought for a fair amount.
"We're all sitting around, terrified of what's to come, but we don't know where to go or what to do."
