‘We didn’t really expect it’: Brisbane residents caught off-guard by fast-rising floods

SES volunteers go door to door in their boat along Noble Street in Wilston, in Brisbane's inner north, checking on flood-hit residents. Photograph: Ben Smee/The Guardian

The flood water settled into Granville Street with little warning on Saturday evening. By the next morning, John Huth was soaked up to his waist as he retrieved storage boxes from under his Wilston house in Brisbane’s inner north, the water still creeping up towards the floorboards.

“This place didn’t flood in 2011,” says John’s wife, Gwen. “When we moved here we looked and we knew this house wasn’t affected. The backyard is now completely underwater.”